Deal comes just weeks after Ottawa blocked Chinese bid for goldfield on national security grounds
Toronto-based Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. has agreed to buy a faltering gold mine in Nunavut just weeks after the federal government blocked a Chinese company’s offer for the goldfield on national security grounds.
Agnico will pay $2.20 per share to purchase TMAC Resources Inc., which started producing gold at its Hope Bay Mine in Nunavut in 2017 but has never met performance or output expectations.
The cash deal, valued at $286 million in equity, represents about $60 million more, or a 26 per cent premium, to what China’s state-owned Shandong Gold Group offered for TMAC earlier this year, and a 66 per cent premium to TMAC’s 20-day volume weighted average trading price.
The deal is expected to close swiftly, as early as the end of the month according to the parties, and shines a light on the rising development of natural resources in Canada’s Arctic region.
In the past decade or so, Agnico has built three gold mines in Nunavut, and adding TMAC’s mine further cements its status as the dominant player in the region, where various resource companies are prospecting.
For the rest of this article: https://financialpost.com/commodities/mining/agnico-eagle-bulks-up-arctic-presence-with-purchase-of-troubled-tmac-mine