There are five gold mining companies making headlines today. Lihir Gold rejected a buyout offer and appointed a new CEO. I believe the two items are unrelated. Allied Nevada gave us an update on its reserves and resources while Apollo Gold and Linear Gold did enter into an agreement to merge. Yamana Gold’s Minera operation in Peru that was shut down for weeks after an earthquake is up and operational. Last but not least, Agnico-Eagle will acquire all the Comaplex Minerals Corp. stock it does not already own and get a gold producing property out of the deal.
Lihir Gold rejected an offer from Newcrest Mining to acquire 100% of Lihir's common shares. Newcrest made the offer on 29 March 2010. Terms of the offer were 1 Newcrest share for every 9 Lihir shares plus A$ 0.225 in cash for each Lihir Gold share. After careful review and analysis, the board of directors unanimously decided that the offer did not represent good value for Lihir Gold shareholders.
Coincidentally, Lihir Gold appointed a new CEO. The company appointed former BHP senior executive Graeme Hunt as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. Lihir Chairman Ross Garnaut stated that Mr. Hunt was the ideal candidate for the CEO role. He brings with him strong leadership skills, vast knowledge of the mining industry and extensive experience in strategic development.
Allied Nevada reported today an update on its mineral reserves and resources. Allied has more than doubled its oxide gold reserves to 2.4 million ounces at its Hycroft mine, which it fully owns near Winnemucca, Nevada. Measured and indicated gold equivalent ounces increased 28% to 10.3 million ounces compared with 8.1 million gold equivalent ounces reported in March 2009.
Apollo Gold and Linear Gold announced today that they have entered into a definitive arrangement agreement by way of a court approved plan of arrangement. The Arrangement Agreement supercedes a previous letter of intent executed by Apollo and Linear regarding the merger. Both companies anticipate that the merger will be completed in June 2010
Yamana Gold reaffirms that their gold production will gradually increase, and cash costs would sequentially decrease, throughout the year. The Minera Florida gold processing plant suffered severe damage from an earthquake that hit Chile on February 27, 2010. Although the mine site was unharmed, it was without a secure normal power supply for weeks. This caused Minera Florida to produce less than anticipated. Yamana stated that the Minera Florida operation is now fully operational.
Agnico-Eagle and Comaplex Minerals Corp. announced that Agnico-Eagle will acquire all of the shares of Comaplex that it does not already own. The terms of the agreement would give each shareholder of Comaplex 0.1576 of an Agnico-Eagle share per Comaplex share. Agnico-Eagle would also acquire Comaplex's Meliadine gold property. Comaplex owns a 100% interest in the advanced stage Meliadine gold project located in Nunavut, Canada, approximately 300 kilometers from Agnico-Eagle's producing Meadowbank gold mine. Meliadine currently has 3.29 million ounces of measured and indicated gold resources from 13M tons grading 7.9 grams per ton (g/t) and inferred gold resources of 1.73M ounces from 8.4M tons grading 6.4 g/t.
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