Goldcorp Inc makes first move into Arctic with $520 million deal to buy Kaminak Gold Corp – by Peter Koven (Financial Post – May 13, 2016)

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The $520-million sale of Kaminak Gold Corp. marks yet another success for mining entrepreneur Eira Thomas, whose companies have been on a major winning streak of late. “I’m really fortunate that I’ve had the opportunity to be involved in some terrific projects,” Kaminak’s chief executive said in an interview.

Ms. Thomas, 48, is known as the “Queen of Diamonds” because she discovered the Diavik diamond mine in the Northwest Territories in 1994. But her recent track record is just as notable.

She co-founded Lucara Diamond Corp., which made headlines around the world last year when it discovered the second-largest gem-quality diamond in history. Stornoway Diamond Corp., which she co-founded and led for several years, is close to bringing Quebec’s first diamond mine into production. They are two of the mining sector’s only bright spots of the past few years.

And now Kaminak is being sold to Goldcorp Inc. for roughly triple its value at the start of 2016. The all-stock deal represents a 32 per cent premium to its closing price on Wednesday.

Like its peers in the junior gold mining sector, Kaminak was left for dead by most investors over the last few years. But the Vancouver-based firm staged a massive rebound in 2016 as gold prices rose and it released a promising feasibility study for the Coffee gold project in the Yukon. The study indicated Coffee could produce more than 200,000 ounces of gold a year for several years at low all-in sustaining costs of US$550 an ounce.

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