TORONTO and CALGARY - Toronto-based Agnico-Eagle Mines has announced its intention to acquire all of the shares of Calgary's Comaplex Minerals that it does not already own in a friendly takeover. The prize for Agnico is Comaplex's 100% interest in the advanced stage Meliadine gold project near Rankin Inlet, NU.
The Meliadine West property may contain close to 5 million oz of gold in multiple deposits. (See www.Comaplex.com for details of the resource estimate.) The Meliadine project is approximately 300 km from Agnico's producing Meadowbank gold mine.
"At Meliadine, our plan would be to accelerate an underground exploration program focused on expanding the resource and converting the large resource into reserves over the next two years. We hope to initiate a feasibility study prior to the end of 2011," said Agnico-Eagle president Sean Boyd. Commercial mining could be five years away.
The agreement between the companies involves the transfer of the Meliadine assets to Agnico. Comaplex shareholders would receive 0.1567 of an Agnico share for each share of Complex they hold, equivalent to $9.32 per share. Comaplex shareholders will also receive a share of New Comaplex for each share currently held, equivalent to $1.00 a share. New Comaplex will hold all of Comaplex's assets except for the Meliadine project. When complete, the deal will be worth $650 million.
The directors of both companies have unanimously approved the agreement in principle. The transaction is subject to approval by Comaplex shareholders and regulatory approvals.
Agnico-Eagle has released a production guidance target of 1.0 million to 1.1 million oz of gold in 2010 at total cash costs of US$399/oz. Visit www.Agnico-Eagle.com for further information.
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