Canada's Barrick Gold, the world's largest gold mining company, has entered into an agreement to buy Equinox Minerals Ltd copper producer for $7.6 billion, Barrick Gold said on Monday.
"The offer represents a 30 percent premium based on Equinox's closing share price on the Toronto Stock Exchange on February 25, 2011," Barrick Gold said in a statement.
Barrick Gold has raised loans worth a total $5 billion from RBC Capital Markets and Morgan Stanley to finance the deal.
"Combined with our Zaldivar mine and Cerro Casale project in Chile, this acquisition would position Barrick with significant production growth potential in two of the most prolific copper-producing regions of the world. This will be in addition to our targeted growth in annual gold production to 9 million ounces within the next five years," Barrick President and CEO Aaron Regent was quoted as saying in the statement.
MOSCOW, April 25 (RIA Novosti)
