Wheaton vote goes down to wire

With a revised offer from Coeur d’Alene Mines (CDE-N) now in the picture, shareholders of Wheaton River Minerals (WRM-T) are to vote on two buy-out offers on July 6.

Wheaton shareholders now have the choice between the original friendly merger agreement with Iamgold (IMG-T), which offers 0.55 of a share of Iamgold for one share of Wheaton, and a new hostile bid from Coeur that offers 0.796 of a share of Coeur, or a cash-plus-shares package.

Coeur bumped its offer after a committee of Wheaton’s independent directors recommended in favour of the Iamgold deal, which dates back to March 30. Three Coeur offers, from May 27, June 3 and June 23, have been spurned so far; the first offered 0.649 of a share, the second 0.736 of a share, and the third 0.731 of a share for one Wheaton, or a combination of cash and shares.

Under the new Coeur offer a Wheaton share will fetch 0.796 of a Coeur share, or up to $5.47 a share in cash. The cash offer is subject to a maximum of $570 million in cash going to shareholders, with the balance paid in Coeur shares; in the event of all Wheaton shareholders electing to receive cash, each would get $1 per share plus 0.65 of a Coeur share.

Coeur’s increased offer came on June 29, one day after Golden Star Resources (GSC-T) upped its bid for Iamgold. Golden Star, which had offered 1.15 shares for one Iamgold share, now is offering a combination of cash and shares, either 1.25 Golden Star for one Iamgold in a paper trade, or 1.15 Golden Star and 50 cash, with cash limited to $56 million. Iamgold’s board countered that Golden Star’s proposal effectively uses Iamgold cash to provide the cash portion of the bid.

The participants in the fray have also been making announcements to pretty themselves up in front of the voting shareholders. Wheaton announced a 20% increase in reserves at its Baja Alumbrera copper-gold mine in Argentina, bringing its share of proven and probable reserves (a 37.5% interest) to 151 million tonnes grading 0.53 grams gold per tonne and 0.48% copper.

Golden Star announced increases in reserves at its Wassa gold mine, and and new drill results from its Prestea gold project, both in Ghana. Coeur announced progress on environmental permitting at the San Bartolome silver project in Bolivia and the Kensington gold project in Alaska. Both those projects are at feasibility stage.

Meanwhile the proxy opinions of institutional investment advisor Fairvest are again being trotted out by the two sides. Fairvest most recently has recommended that Iamgold shareholders vote in favour of the Wheaton deal, but that Wheaton shareholders vote against it.

The poll that matters will be held on July 6.