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Gold/Mining/Energy : Gold Price Monitor -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ken Benes who wrote (59013)	9/27/2000 1:52:05 PM
From: long-gone	Respond to of 116759

Wednesday September 27, 10:57 am Eastern Time Franco-Nevada and Gold Fields may talk merger again By Scott Anderson TORONTO, Sept 27 (Reuters) - Still hurting from the pain of seeing its merger with Gold Fields Ltd. scuttled by the South African government last week, Franco-Nevada Mining Corp. Ltd.(Toronto:FN.TO - news) said on Wednesday it will meet Gold Fields officials soon at an international gold show in what could be the first steps in resurrecting the deal. ``I think it's fair to say we'll be getting together again with Gold Fields. We always try to get together whenever we're in the same town and we've always had a wonderful rapport with management,'' said David Harquail, senior vice-president at Franco-Nevada in Toronto. ``Who knows, maybe they have some other ideas. Certainly we've spent enough time together and we'll listen to whatever they propose,'' he added. Franco-Nevada chairman Seymour Schulich and president Pierre Lassonde are slated to make a presentation at the Denver Gold Show next week, as are representatives from Gold Fields including president Christopher Thompson. The companies announced in June a $3.7-billion all-stock deal to create the world's third-largest gold producer with annual output of 4.4 million ounces and its primary listing in Toronto. But South African authorities denied Gold Fields exchange control approval on September 21 for its proposed merger with Franco-Nevada, saying it would not benefit the country's economy. Although Franco-Nevada chairman Schulich proclaimed the deal dead last week and said his company would pursue other transactions, Gold Fields said there was a chance the deal could be resurrected. ``We've said all along that we wish to reopen negotiations with the (South African) government to try to find a way to make this work and Franco has said all along that if we can resuscitate the transaction with the government, they'd be willing to discuss it,'' said Cheryl Martin, vice-president of North American investor relations at Gold Fields. ``Certainly if there's a possibility by next week they'll sit down. There's no animosity between the two sides and both sets of management still very, very much would like to do the deal.'' However, Martin added that it is up to Gold Fields and the South African government to make the first moves before any progress could be made with Franco-Nevada. biz.yahoo.com