Deal to acquire New Gold and Rainy River Mine near completion

Coeur Mining continues to work toward completing an acquisition of New Gold.

Shareholders gave their approval last month.

Additional regulatory approvals are still required.

In a conference call on Thursday, Chief Financial Officer Thomas Whelan said some of the administrative work is already underway.

“We look forward to the closing of the New Gold transaction and welcoming our new Canadian colleagues to the core team,” says Whelan.

“Robust integration planning has been underway since mid-November, and we’re prepared for day one after closing.”

The acquisition is expected to be finalized in the next few months.

Coeur’s management team is also looking at the potential of increased spending on exploration activities to extend the life of New Gold’s mines.

Chief Executive Officer Mitchell Krebs says the Rainy River Mine site is especially appealing with its large landbase.

“But I think we’ll want to take a little bit of time, make sure we’ve got our ducks in a row, got the team aligned, and then we take the next step as far as potentially ratcheting up the level of investment and exploration, in particular at Rainy River,” says Krebs.

New Gold planned to spend $2 million on exploration activities at Rainy River last year.

With the existing ore body, the company previously announced plans to wind down open-pit mining by 2028 and underground operations by 2031.