Starmin set to buy Friedland firms

The paperwork is about to increase at Starmin Mining’s Toronto office as the junior prepares to acquire two private companies and undergo a restructuring.

The Toronto-listed company will gain all the issued and outstanding shares of Ivanhoe Goldfields and Desarrolles Minerals Ivanhoe Holdings. Both firms are currently owned by the Friedland family.

To buy Ivanhoe, Starmin is issuing 60 million Starmin common shares and convertible notes with a principle value of $2.1 million. Ivanhoe’s chief assets are the Dublin Gulch and Clear Creek gold properties in the Yukon. The former, which consists of 982 claims and 10 leases, is estimated to contain 100 million tons grading 0.03-0.04 oz. gold per ton. Clear Creek has 490 claims, with anomalous gold values in a 200×1,000-metre zone underlain by sheeted, quartz-gold veins hosted in a granite stock.

Starmin will buy Desarrolles by issuing convertible notes valued at $1.7 million. Desarroles owns all shares of a Venezuelan corporation which holds two concessions in the southeastern state of Bolivar. In addition, Desarrolles will acquire the first right of refusal to a 42.3% interest in the 47,000-acre, polymetallic Stone Boy joint venture in east-central Alaska. Under the deal, Ivanhoe shareholders will be able to nominate all five members of Starmin’s board of directors. Also, Starmin will complete a private placement, at arm’s length, of up to 5 million shares for gross proceeds of $3.7 million.

The purchase of the two companies has yet to be approved by regulators and shareholders.

Once the transactions are completed, Starmin and Adex Mining (TSE) will reorganize their ownership of a gold-copper project in the Philippines. The project will then be sold, at arm’s length, to a company in exchange for shares. Starmin will also sell to the company its other assets, including a half interest in the Hellens Eplett silver property in northeastern Ontario.