Mexico mine part of merger

Shareholders of Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp. approved a $1.1 billion merger last week that will give the company a Mexican silver property.

Ownership of the Palmarejo property, about 260 miles south of Chihuahua, Mexico, will eventually bring the company’s silver output to 30 million ounces annually, officials said. It also gives Coeur d’Alene Mines its first property in Mexico.

The Palmarejo Mine is expected to open in early 2009. The mine will produce an estimated 10.4 million ounces of silver during its first year of production.

More than 88 percent of Coeur d’Alene Mines’ shareholders approved the deal, which was voted in on Friday.

The merger is largely a stock transaction. Coeur d’Alene Mines will acquire all of the outstanding shares of the two other firms, Bolnisi Gold NL, of Australia, and Montreal’s Palmarejo Silver and Gold Corp.

Shareholders of the other firms also approved the deal last week.

SEATTLE

Leasing group buys 20 737s

Boeing Co. said Monday it received an order for 20 of its popular 737 planes from Babcock & Brown Aircraft Management, an aircraft leasing group, and its partner Nomura Babcock & Brown.

Boeing said the order is worth $1.5 billion at list prices, but buyers typically negotiate significant discounts. The order was previously credited to an unidentified customer on Boeing’s Web site.

Babcock & Brown, based in Australia, said the order brings its 737 fleet to more than 125 planes.

Shares of Boeing dipped 52 cents to close at $92.64.

CHICAGO

Jet-setter gets prison for fraud

Former newspaper mogul Conrad Black was sentenced Monday to 6 1/2 years in prison, far less than sought by prosecutors, for swindling shareholders in his Hollinger media empire out of $6 million.

“Mr. Black, you have violated your duty to Hollinger International shareholders,” U.S. District Judge Amy J. St. Eve told the silver-haired millionaire member of the British House of Lords known throughout the newspaper industry for his lavish lifestyle and flamboyant use of words.

Prosecutors had asked for as many as 30 years in prison for the Canadian-born Black, saying he had not shown “one shred of remorse” for looting the company that once owned the Chicago Sun-Times, Daily Telegraph of London, Jerusalem Post and hundreds of U.S. and Canadian community newspapers.

“Obviously, there’s a great deal of relief” at the lighter-than-expected sentence, said Black attorney Jeffrey B. Steinback, who delivered a passionate, hourlong appeal for leniency.

Black, currently staying at his estate in Palm Beach, Fla., on a $21 million bond, was given until March 3 to report to prison. St. Eve recommended the federal correctional center at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.

Black left the courthouse without commenting.