The head of Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. said he expects even more consolidation in the sector after Newmont Mining Corp.’s US$10-billion deal to buy rival Goldcorp Inc. – but that won’t change his company’s strategy.

“I think this is a continuation of a move to … reduce the number of players to better match the number of higher quality opportunities that exist in the space,” Sean Boyd, vice chairman and CEO of Agnico, told BNN Bloomberg on Monday. 

“We’re going through a phase that we saw 20 to 25 years ago when companies like Homestake, Placer Dome, Battle Mountain, Hemlo and Echo Bay all got wrapped up in consolidation.”

The Newmont-Goldcorp transaction comes just three months after Barrick Gold Corp. announced its US$5.4-billion deal to combine with Randgold Resources Ltd. But despite the two blockbuster gold mining mergers, Boyd said Agnico isn’t seeking to join the rush of big deals.

“Our story continues to grow, our output continues to grow,” Boyd said, adding that Agnico will start two new mines this year and its gold production is set to reach two million ounces in 2020. “We’ve built this on smaller M&A. That strategy continues to work for us. What the big guys do we don’t really pay attention to.”

Boyd added that while Newmont Goldcorp’s headquarters will be in Colorado, and Goldcorp’s Vancouver office will become the newly-merged miner’s regional office, Agnico is committed to its Canadian roots.

“It’s always painful when you lose a head office and Goldcorp was certainly, over the last few years, a well-known, good Canadian brand in the gold space,” Boyd said. “So I think we lose a bit there, but I think we have to trust the Newmont team as operators that they’re going to manage the Canadian assets effectively and continue to invest in Canada.”

Boyd said that as the largest producer of gold in Canada in 2018, Agnico has 6,600 employees in the country and just invested US$1 billion in its Nunavut platform.

“We’re certainly trying to do our part so that mining is at the forefront of Canadian industry and investment.”

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