Coeur Buys Australian Gold Interest
Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp. said Friday that it has acquired a stake in an Australian gold mining company as the first step toward buying the entire firm.
Coeur bought 19.9 percent of Gasgoyne Gold Mines NL, and intends to make an offer for the remaining shares held by Ioma Pty Ltd.
The initial stake cost Coeur about $18.4 million U.S. dollars. Coeur is offering to acquire the remaining shares for approximately $100 million U.S. dollars, said Tony Ebersole, director of investor relations for Coeur.
Ioma is controlled by the officers and directors of Gasgoyne. The group is expected to decide whether to accept or reject the Coeur offer by March.
“The combination of Gasgoyne’s attractive portfolio of assets and management team together with Coeur’s project development and mine operating expertise and financial strength will position Gasgoyne to become a major precious metals group in Australasia,” Phil Crabb, chief executive officer of Gasgoyne, said in a statement.
Gasgoyne is a medium-sized gold producer with no substantial debt and low production costs, Ebersole said. It owns half of two mines in Western Australia and Indonesia. It also owns half of a promising exploration project near the Western Australia mine.
The sale, Ebersole said, has some conditions: Coeur needs to control at least 50.1 percent of the shares of Gasgoyne to take over the company. But Coeur ideally would like to buy all of the shares.
Also, Gasgoyne’s financial performance - a pretax profit of about $10 million U.S. dollars for the last fiscal year - must not change dramatically.
The move is not Coeur’s first in the South Pacific, where the North Idaho company is building a stake in Australia and Asia. Coeur also owns 80 percent of a gold mine in New Zealand. In addition, Coeur operates two mines in Chile. It plans to combine its experience developing international mines with the exploration expertise of Gasgoyne.
Coeur also owns half of two Silver Valley silver mines with New York-based Asarco Inc.
, DataTimes