Canadian miner Iamgold to acquire gold explorer Trelawney for C$608 mn
28 Apr 2012
Canadian miner Iamgold Corp on Friday agreed to acquire gold explorer Trelawney Mining and Exploration Inc, for C$608 million in cash in order to expand its footprint in Canada.
South America and Burkina Faso focused Toronto-based Iamgold, is offering to pay $3.30 for each share, a 42 per cent premium to Trelawney's closing price on 26 April.
Net of cash held by Trelawney, Iamgold is paying around C$505 million for the company. The transaction is expected to close by the end of June.
The acquisition will give Iamgold control of Trelawney's attractive yet to be developed Côté Lake gold project in the highly prospective gold producing region in the Swayze Greenstone Belt in northern Ontario.
On 24 February, Trelawney announced an updated mineral resource estimate for Côté Lake, to 0.93 million ounces of indicated resources and 5.94 million ounces of inferred resources.
Analysts say that it would take around $1-billion to develop the Côté Lake gold project.
Iamgold is a leading mid-tier gold mining company producing approximately one million ounces annually from five gold mines on three continents.