The Evolution Mining Ltd (ASX: EVN) share price is up 3% after announcing the acquisition of Carnaby Resources Ltd (ASX: CNB).
Evolution Mining is one of the ASX’s largest gold miners on the ASX. Carnaby Resources is an Australian miner focused on copper and gold projects in Queensland and Western Australia.
Golden acquisition
Evolution Mining announced that it’s going to acquire 100% of Carnaby Resources, having entered into a binding scheme implementation deed.
This acquisition will incorporate the advanced copper-rich Greater Duchess project, which is located near Ernest Henry’s operations, expanding Evolution Mining’s copper growth pipeline.
Evolution Mining said that this has the potential to deliver approximately 10kt per year of additional copper production at Ernest Henry, leveraging existing infrastructure and utilising mill capacity, as well as improving the operation’s cost profile. This can also support the Bert expansion project currently in execution.
The acquisition will also give Evolution Mining an enlarged regional tenement package, with multiple priority targets already identified near Ernest Henry.
How much will this cost?
Evolution said that Carnaby shareholders will receive 0.0682 new Evolution shares for each Carnaby share held.
This implies an offer price of $0.77 for each Carnaby share, valuing the smaller miner at approximately $213 million.
It’s a big offer – the implied offer price was a 60.4% premium to the closing Carnaby Resources share price on 24 July 2026.
Management comments
The Evolution Mining Managing Director and CEO Lawrie Conway said:
The acquisition of Carnaby represents an exciting opportunity to add the Greater Duchess project to our portfolio and further consolidate our position in the highly prospective Cloncurry region.
The close proximity of Greater Duchess provides an opportunity to increase copper production at Ernest Henry, utilising latent mill capacity and existing infrastructure. The combination of Ernest Henry’s Bert project and Greater Duchess enhances our ability to continue to maximise production and growth at Ernest Henry.
Combining Carnaby’s Greater Duchess and prospective tenement package, together with Evolution’s established operating presence in North West Queensland provides regional consolidation and has the potential to unlock value for both Carnaby and Evolution shareholders.
Under our ownership, we will be able to best optimise and integrate Greater Duchess within our long-life Ernest Henry operations and take full advantage of the additional regional exploration potential.
Final thoughts on the Evolution Mining share price
Carnaby Resources shareholders can be happy, with the share price jumping to approximately the same price as the offer price.
Most ASX gold shares are (currently) noticeably up today, so I’m not sure investors can read too much into the rise of the Evolution Mining share price being a tick of approval.
I like Evolution Mining as an ASX gold share to own with how its mines are located in stable mining jurisdictions. But, the shorter-term return will be decided by changes in the gold price, which is very difficult to predict.
Therefore, other ASX dividend shares and ASX growth shares could be more predictable buys.
