Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Gold/Mining/Energy : ARP - V Argentina Gold -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DeplorableIrredeemableRedneck who wrote (2358)	1/29/1999 6:08:00 PM
From: Link Lady	Respond to of 3282

canoe.com According to this report Lundins wanted $6.75. What do you think they want now? For Friday, January 29, 1999 Argentina Gold still wants more By JOHN SCHREINER The Financial Post Argentina Gold Corp. continued to campaign yesterday for a takeover offer better than $5 a share, while its shareholders were forced to decide whether or not to tender to the Barrick Gold Corp. offer that expired a minute after midnight. The Vancouver company pleaded with shareholders not to tender their shares. It released more assays from its first diamond drill hole on its 60%-owned Veladero project in the Argentinean Andes in a last-gasp effort to attract a white knight. Sophia Shane, the company's director of investor relations, described the assay results as "fabulous . . . We could indeed get an overall increase in grade at this target and that would affect the overall valuation of the company." The company reported a 105-metre-long mineralized section of core averaging 17.87 grams of gold and 72.73 grams of silver per tonne. On Wednesday, Barrick succeeded in having the B.C. Securities Commission strike down Argentina Gold's poison pill implemented Jan. 19. "The shareholders of Argentina Gold must be given the opportunity to decide for themselves whether the price offered by Barrick is adequate," BCSC chairman Douglas Hyndman said after a day-long lawyer-filled hearing that stretched to 9 p.m. Barrick, which already owns 9.9% of the shares, wants at least 50.1% of the common shares. "It was obviously time for the poison pill to go," said Paul Melnuk, Barrick's president. "Fifty days have passed since the announcement of our offer and there have not been any competing bids." The Toronto-based company already has a 40% interest in the Veladero project, which is only six kilometres from a large gold-bearing Barrick property. Testimony at the hearing, which was instigated by Barrick, suggested that Argentina Gold fumbled its defence by not being aggressive enough initially in looking for an alternative suitor after rejecting Barrick's opening $4-a-share bid on Dec. 9. It later was increased to $5, still well short of the $6 to $6.75 that Argentina Gold wants. At first, the junior producer courted Placer Dome Inc. of Vancouver and Newmont Gold Corp. of Denver. "We were very confident that Newmont was going to bid," said William Rand, a director of Argentina Gold and an adviser to Adolf and Lukas Lundin, the principal shareholders of Argentina Gold. However, Newmont declined to commit itself, despite regular meetings and phone calls. Finally, on Jan. 14, Argentina Gold hired ScotiaMcLeod Inc. to solicit other bids and, on the brokerage firm's advice, adopted the poison pill to prevent Barrick from concluding its takeover before mid-February. William Gula, who headed the ScotiaMcLeod team, testified that his firm was able to invigorate the languishing auction of Argentina Gold by making calls to about 30 potential suitors. By the middle of this week, he said, four had signed confidentiality agreements, a fifth was close to signing and four were reviewing information packages. He did not name the companies. Ms. Shane said that one company, which she did not name, was on the Veladero site yesterday.

To: DeplorableIrredeemableRedneck who wrote (2358)	1/29/1999 6:13:00 PM
From: Link Lady	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3282

canoe.com Barrick shares climb after takeover bid extension TORONTO, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Shares of Barrick Gold Corp. jumped on Friday after the Canadian gold producer extended its C$160-million hostile takeover bid for Argentina Gold Corp. . The two Canadian companies have been embroiled in a bitter war of nerves since December when Barrick launched a surprise C$4-a-share, or C$128-million, bid for control of its high-flying rival and the prized Veladero gold mine in northwestern Argentina. Toronto-based Barrick, which owns 9.9 percent of Argentina Gold and 40 percent of Veladero, later sweetened the offer to C$5 a share at the prompting of several large Argentina Gold shareholders. Barrick rose C$0.80 to close at C$28.85 a share on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Argentina Gold also nudged up C$0.10 to close at C$5.35 a share on the Vancouver Stock Exchange. Barrick's sweetened bid was due to expire just after midnight on Thursday, but company officials opted to extend the deadline until February 9 to give shareholders more time to ponder the offer. Barrick, which operates the Pascua gold property six kilometres (3.8 miles) from Veladero, is keen to fold the Veladero property into its growing operations in the remote Andean mountain range on the Chilean-Argentine border. Despite the last-minute extension, Barrick said it remained in the driver's seat in what has become a grudge match pitting North America's second largest gold producer against one of the hottest mining companies on the small but lively VSE. "It's our cash on the table. We could pull the offer anytime. We can pull our conditions or we can take up and pay for what (number of shares) is in the box already," Barrick spokesman Vincent Borg said. Borg refused to say how many Argentina Gold shares had already been tendered to Barrick. Barrick's extension also followed the British Columbia Securities Commission's decision on Wednesday to throw out Argentina Gold's recently-adopted shareholder rights plan, or "poison pill," after ruling it was not in the public interest. Argentina Gold adopted the plan two weeks ago to buy more time in its search for an alternative to Barrick's offer, which it labeled "inadequate, opportunistic and coercive." The Vancouver-based company urged its shareholders this week to reject the Barrick offer and launched an ambitious search for a "white knight" bid. Argentina Gold also continued to tantalize investors with drill results indicating the Veladero property could contain much more than the previous estimate of 4.5 million ounces of gold and 119 million ounces of silver. The company has said Veladero could contain 20 million ounces of gold. "There is a growing recognition of the upside potential of the Veladero project and also a recognition that the land controlled by Argentina Gold encompasses an entire mining district," Argentina Gold said in a press release on Friday. The company also said it had sold on 2 million of its shares at a price of C$5.25 a share to institutional investors on a private placement basis on Friday in an effort to raise cash for continued drilling at Veladero and expenses related to the Barrick takeover fight.