Barrick Gold, the largest gold mining company in the world, made an $18bn offer for Newmont Mining, an American mining company. The proposal is for a merger in which each Newmont shareholder would receive 2.5694 Barrick shares per Newmont share, representing an at-market transaction based on the volume-weighted average trading prices of the shares of Barrick and Newmont on the New York Stock Exchange over the 20 trading days ended February 20, 2019, being the last trading day before the day on which news of this transaction was broadly leaked through the financial press. Barrick shareholders would own approximately 55.9% of the merged company and Newmont shareholders would own approximately 44.1%. Barrick President and CEO Mark Bristow said the proposed merger is expected to unlock more than $7bn net present value (pre-tax) of real synergies, a major portion of which is generated by combining the two companies’ highly complementary assets in Nevada, including Barrick’s significant mineral endowments and Newmont’s processing plants and infrastructure. “The combination of Barrick and Newmont will create what is clearly the world’s best gold company, with the largest portfolio of Tier One gold assets2 and the highest level of free cash flow to drive future growth and support sustainable shareholder returns, run by a management team with an unparalleled record of delivering value,” he said. The deal was cancelled on March 11 2019. The companies said they have instead signed an agreement to create a joint venture for their operations in Nevada, where Newmont has 19 mines adjacent to Barrick’s.