Big firms rush to gold mining in 2009

January 06, 2009

Commodity Online
NEW DELHI: Lots of activities are witnessed in the gold mining sector across the world as the recession has brought some wisdom among investors across the world.

Following the global meltdown, companies are rethinking on their investments and they are rushing to gold and gold mining as they realise that gold is the best bet they can bank on in the time of crisis.

As proof for this thinking Shandong Gold Mining has announced that it has signed an agreement with Chifeng Chaihulanzi Gold Mining to purchase a 74 per cent stake in the firm.

According to the deal, Shandong Gold will pay around $25.86 million for the controlling stake in Chifeng Chaihulanzi, which is licensed to exploit gold in Chifeng City in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region of north China.

The Chaihulanzi mine reported net income for the first ten months of 2008 of 45.9 million $4.6 million.

With a reserve of more than 1.6 million tonnes of ores at the end of 2007, Shandong Gold had previously stated that it hoped to increase its retained reserves, improve profitability and lower production costs through its investment in Chifeng Chaihulanzi Gold Mining.

Shandong Gold Mining is the third largest bullion producer in China.

In another development similar to the previous one, IAMGold announced that it has signed a new definitive option agreement with Merrex Gold to earn a 50 per cent interest in the Siribaya gold project in west Africa.

The gold property in western Mali is 100 per cent controlled by Merrex and consists of 700 sq km covering two major regional structural trends with significant gold mineralisation potential.

IAMGold can earn an interest in Siribaya by spending 1.5 million Canadian dollars over four years.

The gold mining company has completed a private placement of 840,000 pounds in Merrex by subscribing for 4,285,714 units, with each unit comprising one common share and one 12-month warrant.

IAMGold now holds 4,285,714 common shares of Merrex, representing around 6.47 per cent of its outstanding common share capital and potentially rising to 12.15 per cent under the new agreement.

There is more activities happening in the gold mining sector. London-based gold firm Cambrian Mining has agreed to a new all-share takeover deal with Western Canadian Coal.

Under the merger contract, Cambrian investors will receive 0.75 shares in Western Canadian for each share they own in the British company, a 39 per cent premium on Cambrian’s share price when merger talks started on December 16th.

Diversified mining group Cambrian supports a number of mines including the Augusta gold and antimony mine in Victoria, Australia.

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