Two weeks ago I looked at some of the financial dealings in the Canadian mining sector, and I thought they might be indicative of investor confidence in our industry. Looking now at the ever-growing list, I am happy to report that does, indeed, seem to be the case.
Notable because of its US$750 million value, Barrick Gold's sale of debt securities must top the list. The company announced it would issue 6.95% notes due in 2019 on March 19. The deal closed on March 24. Evidently, many investors have faith in the world's largest gold producer.
In decreasing order of value, here is a short list of some of the other money raised in the last week.
C$300 million — First Quantum, equity offering for capital development projects in Africa.
US$65 million — Century Mining, loan repayable with physical gold for the reopening of the Lamaque mine in Quebec.
C$80 million — Rusoro Mining, equity financing for capital expenditures on several gold projects in Venezuela.
C$65 million — Quadra Mining, bought deal of common shares to refinance existing debt and complete the Franke copper project in Chile.
US$32 million — Glen Eagle Resources, credit facility for unnamed mining acquisitions.
C$12 million — Greystar Resources, sale of shares and warrants for the pre-development of the Angostura gold-silver project in Colombia.
$C10 million — Acadian Mining, private placement to repay debt and advance the company's gold projects in Nova Scotia.
C$10 million — Victoria Gold, private placement to advance gold projects in Nevada and for the acquisition of StrataGold.
Together, the value of these deals approaches C$1.5 billion. That's a lot of money for one-week's announcements. At his rate the future is looking bright for companies with top-quality assets.
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