This is an interesting article and an interesting statement made by Ron Vance. Perhaps he was referring to ARU.
Teck Cominco Ltd. will soon decide whether to spin off or sell its gold assets, a company executive told a mining conference Tuesday.
Ron Vance, Teck's senior vice-president of corporate development, said the Vancouver miner has received “substantial interest,” in its gold properties and projects, which include a 50-per-cent interest in the Hemlo Gold Mines near Marathon, Ont., and a 40-per-cent stake in the Pogo Gold Mine in Alaska.
Teck is also developing gold projects in Turkey, Mexico and Chile.
In a presentation to the BMO Capital Markets Global Resource conference in Tampa, Fla., Mr. Vance said Teck's bullion interests would “rank solidly amongst the mid-tier of North American gold producers.”
Mr. Vance said Teck will determine what to do with the gold assets once commercial production begins at the Pogo mine, some time in the second quarter.
In addition to selling its gold properties or spinning them off into a separate vehicle, the cash-rich company could also buy a suite of existing gold assets to form a larger gold producer.
“We expect there will be movement there in the not too distant future,” Mr. Vance said.
Greg Barnes, an analyst at TD Newcrest in Toronto has said Teck's gold assets are worth between $1-billion and $1.2-billion, or between $4.92 and $5.68 per Teck share.
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