Newcrest will pay Toronto-listed Imperial Metals Corp $US806.5 million ($A1.145 billion) for a majority stake in a Canadian copper and gold mine.
The Australian gold miner will acquire a 70 per cent joint-venture interest in the Red Chris mine and surrounding tenements in British Columbia.
Newcrest will also operate the mine, which is estimated to contain 20 million ounces of gold and 13 billion pounds of copper.
It will fund the acquisition from cash and existing bank facilities, which amounted to a total of more than $US3.0 billion on December 31.
Chief executive Sandeep Biswas said Newcrest had a clear plan to turn the orebody into a Tier 1 operation.
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"The geology of Red Chris is similar to our Cadia orebodies in Australia and we will be applying our considerable experience in exploration, open pit mining, caving and processing to maximise the value of Red Chris and the opportunities in the surrounding region," Mr Biswas said.
"We look at this opportunity in the same way as we do with Cadia, where we have proven we can create significant value from deep underground porphyry orebodies."
Red Chris - on the northern edge of the Skeena Mountains, approximately 1,700 kilometres north of Vancouver - started commercial production in July 2015 and employs about 500 people.
In the first nine months of 2018, the mine site produced 44.8 million pounds of copper and 29,569 ounces of gold at a cash cost of $US2.41 per pound of copper.
Newcrest shares were worth $A24.50 before the ASX opened on Monday, up 50 per cent in a little over two years.
They were worth $6.96 as recently as December 2013.
