NEWMONT AND NEWPORT WILL COMBINE IN RECORD GOLD M&A DEAL

Newmont Corp., the world’s largest gold miner, will take over Australian competitor Newcrest Mining Ltd. in a deal valued at $17.5 billion, the gold mining industry’s largest merger on record.

Newmont will trade two-fifths of a share for one full share of Newcrest.

The combination is the mining industry’s latest as companies are joining to find efficiencies and cut costs because the size of new ore discoveries is decreasing.

Gold’s price is near its record and many investors are betting it will remain strong at least through this year as the world’s economy staggers.

The Newmont-Newcrest marriage is sweetened by the significant amounts of copper that Newcrest’s mines produce, Newmont CEO Tom Palmer noted in a public statement.

The market for copper—a key metal in electrical equipment—is expected to strengthen through the next several years as the world shifts to electric mobility. Wind turbines and electric vehicles incorporate much more copper than petroleum-powered cars and trucks do.

TWO LITHIUM PRODUCERS MERGE

Allkem, an Australian lithium mining and production firm, will combine with U.S. lithium company Livent in an all-stock deal valuing the combined entities at $10.6 billion, the Financial Times reported.

Allkem’s shareholders will own 56 percent of the new enterprise, which will deliver 7 percent of the global lithium supply and is slated to become the world’s third-largest lithium producer by 2027, the FT said, digging 250,000 tons of lithium ore annually by then.

The merger will save $125 million a year in operating costs and cut $200 million a year in capital costs, the merging companies said in a statement.

The new companies will tap lithium resources in Argentina, Australia, and Canada and make use of processing plants in China, Japan, and the U.S.

The companies merged as part of the West’s attempt to challenge China’s dominance of the global lithium market, the FT said.

NUVEEN BUYS 12,000-PLUS UNITS OF AFFORDABLE HOUSING

Nuveen, the investment division of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America, has paid an undisclosed price to buy more than 12,000 affordable dwellings in what The Wall Street Journal called “one of the largest multifamily housing deals this year.”

Most apartments in the sale rent to tenants making no more than 60 percent of their regions’ median income, the WSJ said.

Nuveen said only that the purchase is part of a continuing $3-billion spending spree that includes debt and has doubled the size of its holdings in affordable housing to $6.4 billion.

In addition to the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens in New York City, the newest acquisition includes apartment buildings in Maryland, Massachusetts, and Texas as well as other states, Nuveen said.

Affordable housing makes a relatively safe investment for retirement funds:  government subsidies place a floor under rents landlords collect. Also, in a recession, rents for affordable housing tend to remain stable, while market-rate rents tend to decline.

In April, Goldman Sachs and a group of partners paid $1.2 billion to acquire more than 100,000 affordable housing units across the U.S. Midwest and South.