Video News/Kitco Mining

Equinox Gold and Orla Mining have announced a planned all-stock transaction to create a North American-focused senior gold producer with roughly 1.1 million ounces of annual production and a development pipeline to 1.9 million ounces. Speaking with Kitco Mining’s Paul Harris, Equinox Gold President and CEO Darren Hall said the combination could create a senior-producer profile “which no company on its own could do in the next few years.” Orla Mining President and CEO Jason Simpson said the deal is about accelerating value creation, with the combination “propelling us into a senior space.” The companies expect the combined business to have 23 million ounces of reserves and a market capitalization of about $18 billion to $19 billion. The discussion covered North American scale, U.S. and Canadian exposure, internal funding capacity, shareholder returns, balance sheet strength, regulatory approvals, and the next catalysts at Greenstone, Valentine, Musselwhite, Castle Mountain, Los Filos and South Railroad.