Mr. Mitchell Krebs reports
COEUR MINING, INC. CREATES COEUR CAPITAL, INC. AND ANNOUNCES DEFINITIVE AGREEMENT TO ACQUIRE GLOBAL ROYALTY CORP.
Coeur Mining Inc. is forming a new wholly owned subsidiary, Coeur Capital
Inc., which will hold Coeur's existing and any
future-acquired royalty and streaming interests along with its portfolio
of strategic equity investments. Increasing Coeur's interests in
royalties and streams through Coeur Capital is expected to provide the
company's stockholders with higher-margin, less-volatile free cash flow,
diversified metal exposure and future avenues for growth.
In addition, Coeur today announced that it has entered into an agreement
for Coeur Capital to acquire Global Royalty Corp., a
Vancouver-based privately held company holding precious metals royalty
interests in operating mines located in Mexico and Ecuador. Total
consideration for the transaction, which is expected to close in
December, 2013, will be approximately $23.8-million, consisting of $300,000 in cash and $23.6-million in Coeur common shares, which
represents a 2.1-per-cent increase in Coeur's current outstanding shares of
100.5 million. Upon closing of the transaction, Mark Kucher, president
and chief executive officer of Global Royalty, has agreed to join Coeur Capital as managing
director and will have primary responsibility for its daily management
and growth. Mr. Kucher, who is the largest shareholder of Global
Royalty, has agreed to support the transaction with Coeur.
"We are pleased to announce our agreement to acquire Global Royalty,"
said Mitchell J. Krebs, Coeur's president and chief executive officer.
"Combining Global Royalty's cash flowing royalties with those already
owned by Coeur into a newly formed entity is expected to enhance the
quality and stability of our cash flows, offer superior leverage to
metals prices, reduce our overall risk profile, and increase our margins
and current net cash flow. Over time, we believe Coeur Capital can build
sufficient critical mass to make a meaningful impact on our overall
margins and cash flow and eventually be valued by the equity markets at
the multiples currently enjoyed by streaming and royalty companies due
to the attractive nature of this business model. While the acquisition
of Global Royalty and the formation of Coeur Capital are expected to
augment and balance our composite asset portfolio and complement our
business development initiatives, our focus and priority will remain on
our core business, which is exploring, developing and operating
precious metals assets."
Global Royalty owns a tiered royalty on McEwen Mining Inc.'s El Gallo/Magistral mine in Mexico,
currently paying a 3.5-per-cent net smelter royalty, and a 1.5-per-cent NSR
royalty on Dynasty Metals & Mining Inc.'s Zaruma
gold mine in Ecuador. Both mines are currently in production and paying
royalties. Global Royalty also has an option to acquire an additional
1.5-per-cent NSR on Zaruma (for a total of 3.0 per cent), plus 1.0-per-cent NSR interests on
Dynasty's Jerusalem and Dynasty Goldfields projects in Ecuador, for an
additional $5.0-million. Coeur Capital intends to exercise this option
upon closing the Global Royalty transaction.
El Gallo complex
Under McEwen Mining's ownership, El Gallo has been in production since
September, 2012, and reached commercial production on Jan. 1, 2013.
Global Royalty has received proceeds from McEwen totalling $1,117,227
since September, 2012. The mine remains on track to meet its production
guidance of 27,310 gold equivalent ounces in 2013.
The El Gallo plant is currently being expanded from 3,000 to 4,500
tonnes per day. The expansion is ahead of schedule with completion
expected at the end of the first quarter of 2014. The increased capacity, combined with
higher grades as mining moves deeper in the pit, is expected to increase
production from 27,310 gold equivalent ounces in 2013, to 37,500 gold
equivalent ounces in 2014 and 75,000 gold equivalent ounces by 2015. The
royalty on the El Gallo mine is currently 3.5 per cent until cumulative
production of 350,000 ounces of gold equivalent production has been
reached, of which approximately 275,000 ounces remain to be produced at
this royalty rate. The royalty then decreases to 1.0 per cent in perpetuity. To
date 28,426 ounces of gold equivalent has been produced at El Gallo.
Zaruma project
The Zaruma project is in precommercial production, with processing of
ore to dore at the Zaruma processing plant located in Zaruma, Ecuador.
For the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2013, Dynasty received proceeds
of $23.3-million from the sale of approximately 15,245 ounces of
processed gold and 45,409 ounces of processed silver derived from
intermittent operations at its processing plant in Zaruma during the
continued development of the Zaruma mines. Global Royalty has
received proceeds from Dynasty totalling $565,082 since January, 2012.
Subsequent to Sept. 30, 2013, and up to the date of this news
release, Dynasty exported approximately 4,500 ounces of gold and 9,000
ounces of silver with an approximate value of $6.1-million.
Existing Coeur royalty and streaming interests
Endeavor is an underground lead/zinc/silver mine and associated mill
facility operated by a subsidiary of Toho Zinc in Australia and has been
in production since 1983. Coeur owns 100 per cent of the silver production and
reserves (up to 20 million payable ounces). Endeavor generated $10.4-million of after-tax cash flow and produced 665,816
payable ounces of silver in 2012 and is expected to produce
600,000 to 800,000 payable ounces of silver in 2013.
Cerro Bayo is a silver-gold mine operated by Mandalay Resources Corp. in
Chile. The mine has a 2-per-cent NSR for the life of mine; Coeur received its
first royalty payment from this royalty in the third quarter 2013. Two thousand fourteen production is expected to be three million to 3.2 million ounces of
silver and 23,000 to 27,000 ounces of gold. Two thousand fourteen cash costs per silver ounce
are expected to be $6 to $8.
A slide deck and question and answer information sheet to accompany this release are
posted on the company's website.
Coeur is being represented by Goodmans LLP in the Global Royalty
acquisition.
We seek Safe Harbor.
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