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TORONTO — The chief executive of Goldcorp Inc. is not fretting over lower gold prices this year and says he would view any price declines as an opportunity to buy assets.
In an interview with the Financial Post on Friday, Charles Jeannes, president and CEO of Goldcorp, spoke about the company’s growth prospects in the next year.
Gold prices have steadily pulled back since 2011, when they reached a record intra-day price of US$1,909 an ounce. Prices for the precious metal closed Friday at US$1,268.81 an ounce.
“We’re a low cost producer and we’ve done most of the investing we need to to secure our future,” Mr. Jeannes said. “Building these new mines over the last four years, even if we see gold go down to US$900 — which I don’t think we will — we’d look for opportunities. Things come for sale at that price.”
In January, Goldcorp launched a $2.6-billion hostile bid to buy gold miner Osisko Mining Corp. Goldcorp raised that bid to $3.6-billion a few months later, but ultimately let the offer expire following the launch of a rival bid from Yamana Gold Inc. and Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd.
Mr. Jeannes said on Friday that despite the failed bid, he is not rushing to look for another large acquisition in its place.
“Some people think we went hunting and we didn’t get our prey, so we’re standing there with gun loaded and ready to shoot again,” he said. “It was an opportunity we wanted to take advantage of and it didn’t work. So we’re just back to our normal work.”
Goldcorp is set to see three new mines come online in the next year, including the Cerro Negro project in Argentina, the Éléonore gold project in Quebec and the Cochenour project in Ontario.
This week the company announced it was suspending mining at its El Sauzal gold mine in northern Mexico, following wall instability inside its pit.
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