Red Back Mining Inc. is an unhedged Vancouver based mineral resource company. Its focus is West Africa where it operates the Chirano Gold Project in Ghana and the Tasiast Gold Mine in Mauritania.
It has one division, Red Back Mining NL, based in Perth, Australia.
While independent it was considered one of Canada's Largest gold companies with a market capitalization of $ 5.8 billion or 3/4 as much as the 10th largest gold mining company in the world however at the time its key mines hadn't yet reached full potential or critical mass.In May 2010, there was an announcement of a private placement in which one of the world's largest gold mining companies Kinross Gold will purchase 9.4% of Red Back's outstanding shares. When the deal is completed Kinross will be the company's largest shareholder next to Fidelity Management which currently owns 6%.On August 3, 2010 an announcement was made by Kinross offering to merge Red Back into Kinross with Kinross paying $7.1 billion for all outstanding shares of Red Back. Current Red Back shareholders would own 37 percent of Kinross if the offer is accepted. The price offered was 15% above the current price of Red Back stock. According to Tye W. Burt, Kinross’s President, Red Back has reserves Kinross has the ability to develop.On September 15, 2010 two thirds of Kinross Gold's shareholders voted in favour of the USD 7.2 billion deal to acquire Red Back Mining (99% of Red Back's shareholders approved the deal). Despite opposition from an advisor to Kinross's Investors (and others who estimate the company is overpaying for Red Back based on reserves estimates), KGC plans to close the deal within days of the approval. The acquisition price voted on gives Red Back's shareholders 1.778 KGC commons shares.