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

To: Link Lady who wrote (2641)	2/8/1999 10:34:00 PM
From: Link Lady	Respond to of 3282

Wonder what tomorrow brings? canoe.com Gold firms spar as takeover deadline looms Barrick chief executive resigns TORONTO, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Barrick Gold Corp. and upstart miner Argentina Gold Corp. appeared headed for a Mexican standoff on Monday, just hours before Barrick's hostile takeover bid was due to expire. Toronto-based Barrick, which has offered C$5.00 a share or C$160 million for control of Vancouver-based Argentina Gold and its prized Veladero gold mine in northwestern Argentina, said it was unwilling to either sweeten or extend its bid for a second time. Barrick, North America's second-largest gold producer, recently extended its offer after failing to persuade a majority of Argentina Gold shareholders to tender their shares. The offer expires just after midnight on Monday. "We remain of the view that our offer is more than generous. None of the individual drill results have changed our view one bit. There is no other competing or alternative offer and we'll let it expire," said Barrick spokesman Vincent Borg. Shares of Argentina Gold, one of the hottest mining stocks in recent months on the small but lively Vancouver Stock Exchange, fell C$0.30 to close at C$4.95, or almost 6 percent, on Monday. Borg refused to say how many Argentina Gold shares had already been tendered, but added that Barrick would not take possession of the shares unless there was "sufficient support" for the takeover bid. Barrick, which already owns 9.9 percent of Argentina Gold and 40 percent of Veladero, operates the Pascua gold property six kilometres (3.8 miles) from Veladero and is keen to fold the property into its growing operations in the remote Andean mountain range on the Chilean-Argentine border. But Argentina Gold, which recently rejected Barrick's latest offer as "inadequate, opportunistic and coercive," did not appear to be losing sleep over the impending deadline. It continued to hold out hope for a more lucrative offer from either Barrick or another mining company. "Shareholders should not be concerned about the expiry of Barrick's bid this evening. We believe Barrick would have advised shareholders if they did not intend to increase or extend the bid," Argentina Gold Director Lukas Lundin said in a press release. Argentina Gold said several larger shareholders, mostly U.S.-based portfolio funds, had indicated they would not tender their shares to the Barrick bid. "Most of our large shareholders have told us they are giving us their absolute support on this," company spokeswoman Sophia Shane said. Argentina Gold has tantalized investors with a spate of drill results during the last three months. It raised again on Monday its estimate of Veladero's defined reserves to five million ounces of gold and 150 million ounces of silver. The company had previously indicated the property contained about 4.5 million ounces of gold and 119 million ounces of silver, though officials had speculated Veladero could contain 20 million ounces of gold. Analysts said the increased reserves would likely trigger another round of flailing and wailing in the two-month battle for control of Veladero. Barrick offered C$4-a-share, or C$128-million, for Argentina Gold in early December, but sweetened the bid at the prompting of several large shareholders. "I've been saying consistently that we haven't seen the final chapter and that we are still midway. There have been a lot of maneuvers," said John Ing, president of Maison Placements Canada Inc. in Toronto. Ing said Argentina Gold would likely continue its ambitious drilling program and try to continue topping up Veladero's gold and silver reserves. Barrick shares fell C$0.05 to close at C$30.10 a share on Monday on the Toronto Stock Exchange. ($1=$1.49 Canadian)

To: Link Lady who wrote (2641)	2/8/1999 10:45:00 PM
From: Syncrude	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 3282

Wendy,John, If you did not tender your shares AND if Barrick has determined that its criteria was met, ie. 50.1% of the shares are in their hands, then you still are a shareholder. I understand that if more than 90% of the shares are in the hands of Barrick, then under the Canada Business Corporations Act, Barrick can force you to tender your shares (either for the same price as the offer or at a fair value determined before a court). Barrick has also stated that if it does not succeed in securing all of the shares, then it intends to take the Company (ARP) private, meaning it would no longer trade on an exchange. This would require a favorable vote from 66 2/3% of all shares outstanding. As for the value of your shares if you did not tender, as long as they are listed on an exchange, you will be able to trade them if you want. I somehow think ABX will fail at getting 50.1% and so your shares will continue to trade on the VSE.

To: Link Lady who wrote (2641)	2/8/1999 11:14:00 PM
From: Tony from Niagara	Respond to of 3282

Regarding the questions posed by John Corrigan, the short answers are as follows: Assuming ABX acquires 50% + 1 (or more) shares in ABX, your shares in ARP would still be "valid" in the sense that you would continue to own shares in ARP. You would, however, be an minority shareholder in an ABX subsidiary. As such you would be at the mercy of ABX in terms of its management of ARP but would have rights in the event of oppressive activity (including the right after a lengthy and costly court hearing funded by someone to require ABX to purchase your shares at fair value). If ABX were to acquire more than 90% (???) of the shares in ARP, it would be able to force a compulsory sale of the remaining minority interest. That doesn't seem to be a real concern at this moment. It is arguable that the current share price has been "excited" by the takeover bid. It is also arguable that the price is now depressed because of the possibility that ABX may win the takeover bid and thereby close the "auction". Should ABX win that would likely eliminate any speculative premium in the price. It is also arguable that the price simply reflects the current value of the Au/Ag resource which has been identified to date. Regardless, the best view is that your shares are and will be worth what the market at any given point in time determines they are worth (or in the case of a compulsory sale or successful oppression claim what a court determines to be fair value). Even if ABX wins, given the resource which has been reported to date, the shares should have some value. If that resource should increase with further exploration, the value (other things being equal) should also increase although perhaps not with an 1:1 correspondence. The rough current and possible future value of the resource may be estimated as follows based upon 40MM shares, an in-ground price of Au and Au equivalent of US$ 50/oz., a 40% dilution for ABX's direct interest, and a 67 cent Canadian dollar: Au Equivalent----Total Value-----60% Value----Value per Share 8MM--------------US$400MM--------US$240MM-----CDN$8.96 10MM-------------US$500MM--------US$300MM-----CDN$11.19 20MM-------------US$1,000MM------US$600MM-----CDN$22.39 (My apologies for the hyphens, I couldn't format a table otherwise) Of course, some or all of the above assumptions and comments may be incorrect and the joy of investing is figuring that out. I invite comments upon the assumptions and values set out in the table. Regards, Tony