Agnico out from under SEC review (May 23, 2005)

Agnico Eagle Mines (AGE-T) has revised its 2003 annual report following comments by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on the company’s financial disclosure.

There was no restatement of the financial data following the review, but Agnico did provide more information than in its original filing. Neither Agnico nor the SEC released any specifics about the substance of the review, but previous SEC comments had centred on Agnico’s accounting policies and on accounting measures that did not conform to generally accepted accounting principles.

Last month Agnico settled a regulatory action by the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), which had filed proceedings against Agnico for a failure to make timely disclosure of production shortfalls caused by a rock fall at the Laronde gold mine in Quebec in 2003. The agreed settlement compels Agnico to commission an outside review of its disclosure and reporting practices.

There was no fine attached to the settlement and the OSC noted the company had been “exceptionally cooperative” and had made in-house changes to its policies before the OSC probe started.