Agnico Eagle makes acquisition offer to fellow gold miner Alexandria Minerals

Canadian gold mining company Agnico Eagle Mines Limited has delivered an offer of acquisition to Toronto based gold mining outfit Alexandria Minerals Corporation.

The deal would see Agnico Eagle acquire 100% of Alexandria’s issued and outstanding common shares. The offer represents an improvement, in monetary terms, on a previous May 14 offer from Chantrell Ventures Corporation to Alexandria. Agnico Eagle said the total amount expected to be paid was CA$26mn (US$19.4mn), representing CA$0.05 per share.

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"Agnico Eagle has a long history of involvement with Alexandria, both as an equity investor and through the purchase of the Akasaba West property in 2014,” said Alain Blackburn, Agnico Eagle's Senior Vice President, Exploration.  "We believe that the key Alexandria properties are highly prospective and underexplored and could potentially provide future sources of ore at our nearby Goldex mine.”

Agnico Eagle said the acquisition would allow the consolidation of mining claims along the Cadillac-Larder Lake break in the prospective Val d'Or gold camp. Per Alexandria’s estimates, three of their properties contain combined historical inferred mineral resources of 526,702 ounces of gold, and indicated mineral resources of 448,654 ounces.

Agnico Eagle already owns 28.8mn of Alexandria’s shares, representing 5.6% of the company. Agnico Eagle is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and NYSE under the symbol “AEM”. Alexandria is listed on the TSX Venture exchange under the symbol “AZX”.