Goldcorp founder doesn’t see rival bids for Osisko – by Rachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – March 13, 2014)

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Goldcorp Inc. founder Rob McEwen said he believes his former company will not face competition in its quest to own Osisko Mining Corp.

Goldcorp, which Mr. McEwen built into a serious gold player before leaving in 2005, is entangled in a hostile bid for Osisko and its large Canadian Malartic gold mine in Quebec. “The big guys aren’t looking, they are shrinking,” Mr. McEwen said.

Goldcorp’s cash and stock bid is valued at $3-billion and is the biggest deal in the Canadian mining space in more than a year.

Investors are expecting a higher bid to emerge. But there are not many other miners that can save Osisko from Goldcorp, as the major gold producers are hampered by costly acquisitions made during the commodity boom.

Mr. McEwen suggested that more work had to be done at Osisko’s prized mine. The former Goldcorp chairman said he remembers looking at Canadian Malartic’s ore grade and thinking to himself: “Wow, look at Osisko, they have less than a gram and they are going to process all this [rock].”

“In the right environment … at a higher [gold] price, if they can contain their costs, it will probably be a good mine,” he said.

Mr. McEwen – who left Goldcorp almost 10 years ago and is running McEwen Mining Inc., a small U.S.-based precious metals company – wants to take advantage of the weak stock prices and make an acquisition.

He wants McEwen Mining to one day be listed on the S&P 500, where it will be part of an index that many mutual funds will have to buy.

But in order to get there, he will have to increase his company’s production and market capitalization.

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