Barrick to Acquire Arizona Star

Barrick Gold Corp. said it entered into a support agreement with Arizona Star Resource Corp. under which Barrick agreed to make an offer to acquire all of Arizona Star’s common shares. At the time of the agreement, the offer price represented a 27% premium over Arizona Star’s 20-day volume weighted average trading price on the TSX, and valued Arizona Star at approximately C$773 million on a fully diluted basis. The Barrick offer was unanimously approved by the board of directors of Arizona Star, and all of the directors and officers of the company reportedly have entered into a written agreement to tender their shares to Barrick’s offer.

Barrick also entered into a lock-up agreement with Arizona Star’s largest shareholder, FCMI Resources Ltd., pursuant to which FCMI agreed to tender its Arizona Star shares to Barrick's offer. The shares held by FCMI and the directors and officers of Arizona Star represent, in aggregate, approximately 35% of the outstanding shares on a fully diluted basis.

The support agreement stipulates that, in certain circumstances, if Barrick's offer is not successfully completed, Arizona Star will be required to pay a termination fee of C$27 million.

Arizona Star owns a 51% interest in the Cerro Casale deposit in the Maricunga district of Region III in Chile; Kinross owns the remaining 49%. Cerro Casale is one of the world's largest undeveloped gold and copper deposits. Barrick's assets in the region include the Zaldivar copper mine in Chile, the Pascua-Lama gold-silver project in Chile/Argentina, the Veladero gold mine in Argentina, and the Lagunas Norte and Pierina gold mines in Peru.

As featured in Womp 07 Vol 9 - www.womp-int.com