TORONTO - Executives at Inmet Mining Corp. and Lundin Mining Corp. have decided to merge their companies creating a new entity, Symterra Corp., that will join the ranks of senior copper producers. Symterra is expected to produce over 600,000 tonnes of copper annually by 2017.
Under terms of the agreement, Inmet shareholders will receive 3.49 shares of Symterra for each Inmet share held. Lundin shareholders will receive 0.33 of a Symterra share. This will require the issuance of approximately 640 million Symterra shares. The new company will have a market capitalization of approximately $9 billion.
Symterra will have an impressive portfolio of producing base metal mines as well as two major development projects. Inmet brings to the deal the Cayeli copper-zinc mine in Turkey, the Las Cruces copper mine in Spain, the Ok Tedi copper-gold mine in Papua New Guinea, the Pyhasalmi copper-zinc mine in Finland plus the Cobre Panama copper-gold-molybdenum project in Panama. Lundin's contribution includes the Aquablanca nickel-copper-platinum group mine in Spain, the Neves-Corvo copper-tin-zinc mine in Portugal, the Zinkgruvan zinc-lead-silver mine in Sweden, and the expansion project at the Tenke Fungurume copper-cobalt mine in The Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Symterra executive team will include Lukas H. Lundin (chair), Jochen Tilk (president and CEO) and David Beatty (vice-chair). Other directors will be Donald Charter, Paul Conibear, Paul E. Gagne, Thomas E. Mara, William A. Rand, Douglas Whitehead and Phil Wright.
Completion of the merger is conditional on regulatory approval and the approval of both Inmet and Lundin shareholders. Meetings for shareholders of both companies are expected in mid-March.
An archive of the Jan. 13 webcast conference call discussing the deal will be available at both www.InmetMining.com and www.LundinMining.com.
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