Rumours of an imminent M&A deal involving Kirkland pushed its shares as much as 8.5% on Monday, closing 3.36% higher than Friday’s final price.
Once done, the merger would leave Agnico with $2.3 billion of available liquidity, a mineral reserve base of 48 million ounces of gold (969 million tonnes at 1.53 grams per tonne) and a pipeline of development and exploration projects.
Agnico Eagle shareholders will own about 54% of the combined company, while those of Kirkland Lake will have a 46% ownership.
Agnico Eagle boss, Sean Boyd, will become executive chair of the board, while Kirkland Lake chief executive Tony Makuch will be the combined company’s CEO.
Toronto-based Agnico has mines are in Canada, Finland and Mexico as well as exploration and development activities in those countries and the United States and Colombia.
Kirkland Lake Gold has the Macassa mine and Detour Lake mine, both in northern Ontario, and the Fosterville mine in Australia.
More to come…
