Iamgold and Trelawney Mining and Exploration announced an agreement in late April 2012 whereby Iamgold will acquire Trelawney in a transaction valued at about C$505 million. Trelawney is a Canadian junior company focused on the development of the Côté Lake deposit located adjacent to the Swayze green-stone belt in northern Ontario, about 200 km by road northwest of Sudbury and 120 km by road southwest of Timmins. The transaction is expected to close by the end of June.
In February 2012, Trelawney announced an updated mineral resource estimate for Côté Lake, comprising 35 million mt of indicated resources grading 0.82 g/mt gold, for 0.93 million oz of contained gold, and 204 million oz of inferred resources mt grading 0.91 g/mt gold, for 5.94 million oz of contained gold. Mineralization at Côté Lake has been intersected over a strike length of 1,200 m, a horizontal width of 100 to 300 m, and a depth extent of more than 500 m. Current planning indicates a potential start of construction in 2015.
Trelawney also has a large land package that has significant exploration potential.
Iamgold’s largest operating properties are its Rosebel gold mine in Suriname, its Essakane gold mine in Burkina Faso, and its Niobec niobium mine in Quebec. It also has joint venture interests with AngloGold Ashanti in the Sadiola and Yatela gold mines in Mali, and it owns and operates its Doyon division gold mines in Quebec, where it is developing its Westwood pro-
ject. In June 2011, Iamgold sold its minority interests in the Tarkwa and Damang gold mines in Ghana to Gold Fields Ltd. for $667 million in cash.
Iamgold President and CEO Stephen Letwin said, “The acquisition of Trelawney creates a larger and more geographically balanced portfolio of long-life gold assets for Iamgold. This transaction provides an accretive return on invested capital, as we are effectively redeploying the cash proceeds from the sale of non-core assets last year into a Canadian gold project that significantly strengthens our future gold production profile.
“This is consistent with our strategy to invest in development projects that we own and operate so we can derive maximum benefit from leveraging our operational and development expertise. Trelawney is an excellent strategic fit with our existing Canadian portfolio, and we look forward to advancing this promising property.”
