Early years
Newmont Mining Corporation was founded in 1921 in New York by Colonel William Boyce Thompson as a holding company to invest in worldwide mineral, oil, and relations companies. The name Newmont was chosen by Thompson as a contraction of New York, and Montana, because, as one biographer put it, "he grew up in the latter and made his money in the former."
In 1929, Newmont became a mining company with its first gold product in by acquiring California's Empire Star Mine. By 1939, Newmont was operating 12 gold mines in North America. The company acquired interests overseas. For decades around the middle of the twentieth century Newmont had a controlling interest in the Tsumeb mine in Namibia and in the O'Okiep Copper Company in Namaqualand, South Africa.
Beginning in 1925, Newmont acquired interests in a Texas oil field. Eventually, Newmont's oil interests included more than 70 blocks in the Louisiana Gulf area and oil and gas production in the North Sea.
Newmont discovered dispersed gold at Carlin, Nevada in 1962 and began operating its first mill there in 1965 under the name Carlin Gold Mining Company. The "Carlin Trend" is the largest gold discovery in North America during the 20th century. In 1971, Newmont began using the heap leaching technology on sub-mill grade ores at Carlin. It was one of the first in the gold industry to use heap leaching. In 1986, the company's name was changed to Newmont Gold Company, and five million shares were sold publicly for US$47.5 million. Newmont Mining held a 90 percent interest.
A decade later, Newmont's assets were over US$1.9 billion and income from continuing operations reached US$338 million. In August 1987, Newmont became the target of a failed, unsolicited tender offer for control and dismemberment of the company.
Major growth
After 1987, the company undertook major restructuring. This included the payment of a US$33 per share dividend to all shareholders for a total of US$2.2 billion, of which US$1.75 billion was borrowed. To reduce this debt the company undertook a divestment program involving all of its copper, oil, gas, and coal interests.
As a further step in the restructuring, the company moved its headquarters from New York City to Denver in February 1989. On January 1, 1994, Newmont Mining Corporation, and Newmont Gold Company combined assets to form a unified worldwide gold company. Shareholders of both companies had identical interests in the reserves, production, and earnings of Newmont Gold's operations.
Newmont merged with Santa Fe Pacific Gold Corporation (a former Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway subsidiary, sold in preparation for the merger that produced the BNSF Railway) to form North America's largest gold producer. And, in October 1998, Newmont Mining and Newmont Gold merged, with Newmont Mining acquiring the remaining shares of Newmont Gold that were outstanding at that time. On June 21, 2000, Newmont announced a merger with Battle Mountain Gold Company. The merger was completed in January 2001.
In February 2002, Newmont completed the acquisition of Normandy Mining Limited and Franco-Nevada Mining Corporation Limited. Newmont faced competition in its bit for Normandy from AngloGold. By eventually outbiding the South African company, Newmont became the world's largest gold producer, with an annual production in excess of 8 million ounces.
February 2011: The company has agreed to buy Fronteer Gold Inc. for $2.3 billion and will make the company the world's second-largest gold producer.
Wikipedia
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