Board-Ansicht
Mix-Ansicht- Kein Unbekannter; wir sprachen gerade letzte Woche von ihm: WHT - Emerald, 04.09.2003, 20:48
Kein Unbekannter; wir sprachen gerade letzte Woche von ihm: WHT
-->US$ 1.80: er war mein Tausch-Vorschlag von CDE in WHT
and here comes:
UPDATE 1-Wheaton buys Mexico gold deposits, stock jumps
9/4/2003 1:24:36 PM
(Adds details from conference call, changes dateline from Toronto, Figures in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted)
By Nicole Mordant
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Canadian mid-sized gold producer, Wheaton River Minerals Ltd. (CA:WRM), extending an acquisitive streak, said on Thursday it would buy two gold projects and a small producing mine in Mexico for $87 million.
Vancouver-based Wheaton has leapfrogged its way to become Canada's fifth biggest gold producer through a string of recent purchases, with output of over 500,000 ounces a year.
Wheaton said it had agreed with Canadian diversified miner Teck-Cominco Ltd. (CA:TEKB) and with Miranda Mining Corp. (CA:MRM) to buy the Los Filos Gold deposit, an open-pittable project based in Mexico's Guerrero State.
Wheaton will pay Teck Cominco $48.4 million for its 70 percent stake in Los Filos and buy out junior miner Miranda for $38.6 million to secure its 30 percent interest in the project, the focus of Thursday's deal.
Wheaton's purchase of Miranda also includes a 21.2 percent stake in the nearby El Limon deposit and the 1,000-ounce-a-month Nukay Mine.
Wheaton chairman and CEO Ian Telfer said he was confident that Los Filos would help to propel Wheaton's annual output to over 700,000 ounces once production starts late in 2005.
Wheaton's share price rose 7 percent to a new year high of C$2.47 on the Toronto Stock Exchange following the news. It was the second most active stock on the bourse, with 14.7 million shares changing hands.
FIRST GRASS-ROOTS MINE
Telfer told a conference call that Los Filos would be the first mine Wheaton is developing from scratch. The company previously bought into existing operations in Australia, Argentina as well as elsewhere in Mexico.
"Wheaton River is very excited about the growth potential of the projects and our ability to utilize the existing Luismin infrastructure we have in Mexico," he said.
Los Filos is an open-pittable heap leach deposit, which Teck Cominco has explored in the past.
Vancouver-based Teck Cominco has estimated, at a cut-off grade of 0.5 grams of gold per tonne, the project has a measured and indicated resource of 38.4 million tonnes, grading 1.44 gold per tonne -- equivalent to 1.77 million ounces of gold.
Teck has also calculated an inferred resource of 11.0 million tonnes grading 1.35 gold per tonne for the project.
Wheaton plans to complete a feasibility study on Los Filos next year and start construction immediately after that.
Teck owns the remaining 78.8 percent of El Limon, located 15 km north of Los Filos, and Telfer said talks on acquiring the rest of it could be entertained.
Wheaton will review operations at the Nukay mine and Telfer did not rule out a sale. But he said its continued production, albeit small, did bring in cash.
©
Emerald.
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