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May 2006 - IAMGOLD Corp

IAMGOLD Corporation (IGD.AX, IAG, IMG.TO) –Combining Gallery Gold into a >500,000ozpa ~ US$275/oz Cash Cost Gold Producer

  • This report is based on publicly available information and was commissioned by Gallery Gold Limited (now IAMGOLD Corporation) to increase the market’s knowledge of IAMGOLD Australasia’s operations and regional potential of their key projects of Mupane in Botswana & Buckreef in Tanzania.
  • While Gallery Gold brought operating mining expertise and an Australian geological knowledge approach to the merger, IAMGOLD brought financial muscle resulting in a much stronger gold producer with production >500,000ozpa, a market cap >A$2bn, and US$99m in net cash (which includes 148,420oz in gold at US$329/oz).
  • Gallery Gold was bought for approximately US$200m, and has two operational areas being the Mupane mine in the Tati region of Botswana that produces about 100,000ozpa at cash costs of US$260/oz, and the Buckreef prospect in the Lake Victoria Goldfields of Tanzania on which a scoping study estimated production of 140,000ozpa at cash costs ~ US$260/oz for capex ~US$55m.
  • IAG has holdings in 4 operating gold mines in West Africa, being 40% of Sadiola and 38% of Yatela in JV with Anglogold Ashanti in Mali, and 18.9% of Damang and Tarkwa in JV with Gold Fields in Ghana. These 4 holdings resulted in attributable production of almost 450,000oz in 2005 and have been estimated (by IAG) to produce almost 480,000oz at cash costs of almost US$280/oz in 2006. The addition of GGN currently increases production to well over 500,000ozpa at similar costs.
  • All the prospects at Mupane and Buckreef-Busolwa are being re-interpreted using the latest 3 dimensional geological techniques by parts of the same team that successfully applied the technology to Kingsgate’s Chatree mine and region in Thailand. The initial re-interpretations have determined a number of new targets that could lead to higher resources at potentially higher grades.
  • Written by: Keith Goode
  • Wednesday, 03 May 2006