African Barrick Gold gets regulatory nod to buy Avivas Kenyan exploration ops.

By bne IntelliNews October 24, 2012
Kenyas competition watchdog has given the green light to the planned acquisition of Aviva Mining (Kenya), the local exploration business of Australia-based resource development company Aviva Corporation, by Tanzanian miner African Barrick Gold (ABG), Business Daily reported. Under the deal, ABG, which operates four gold mines in neighbouring Tanzania, will acquire Aviva Mining, which has interests in a number of prospecting licenses in western Kenya where sizeable reserves of gold have been found, for initial cash consideration of AUD 20mn (EUR 15.8mn) and additional payment of up to AUD 10mn depending on the results from exploration. With the final condition for the acquisition of AMKL now satisfied, we look forward to continuing the successful exploration programme on this highly prospective land package, ABGs CEO Greg Hawkins was quoted as saying. ABG, which spun off in early 2010 from Canadas Barrick Gold Corporation to run its operations in Africa, made an IPO in London in March 2011, where it has a free float of 26%, while the remaining 74% are owned by Barrick. ABG is one of the five largest gold producers in Africa and the acquisition is the companys first step in expanding its footprint outside of Tanzania. ABG is trying to expand outside Tanzania and lessen its dependence on the country, in the wake of the governments pushing for mining companies to pay a corporate tax of 30% in line with rising prices of precious metals on the world market. The tax is subject to the companies having been operational in Tanzania for more than five years.

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