With inflation expectations gaining momentum, selling one's gold sounds like a fool's errand. If you're stuffing jewelry into an envelope and mailing it somewhere, please think twice ... or even thrice.
If, however, you're a fast-growing mining company with more than 19 million ounces of gold reserves to play with, plus an exciting pipeline of projects under consideration, then streamlining operations might be the right way to get cash for gold. Yamana Gold
For total consideration of up to $240 million, Yamana Gold is shedding the Sao Francisco and Sao Vicente mines in Brazil, and the San Andres mine in Honduras.
Of the company's nine producing mines, these three represent some of the smallest-scale operations in terms of annual production. With less than 1 gram of gold per tonne of ore, furthermore, they are among the lowest-grade ore bodies in the portfolio, and as such had been classified as noncore assets. Yamana announced its intention to divest noncore assets back in November, so this move did not come out of left field.
Meanwhile, with a $40 million ownership stake in Aura Minerals as part of this deal, and up to $40 million in potential royalty income, Yamana retains substantial interest in the mines without incurring mining costs.
Including those perks, Yamana fetched about $133 per ounce of gold reserves for the deal, which is better than the $100 per ounce that Teck Cominco
Like fellow intermediate producer Agnico-Eagle Mines
While I expect many miners to focus upon growth through acquisitions, with Goldcorp
Further Foolishness: