IAMGOLD To Acquire Interest In Saramacca Property

IAMGOLD Corporation (TO:IAG) announced that it has signed an agreement with the government of Suriname to buy an interest in the Saramacca property with plans of defining a 43-101 compliant mineral resource within the next 24 months.

The Saramacca property, also known as Anomaly M, is located in the Republic of Suriname in close proximity to the Rosebel mill and the Sarafina property optioned to IAMGOLD. The addition of the mine to Rosebel's mineral inventory is expected to support the company’s future mining operations in Suriname. Also, this will extend the life of the existing infrastructure at the company’s mines. This project will be a cost-effective way for achieving growth and will also provide good support to the economy of the country.

The terms of the deal include an initial payment of $200,000, which would allow immediate access to the property for Rosebel's exploration team as well as to data from earlier exploration activity at Saramacca to conduct a due diligence review of the property. Once Rosebel is satisfied with the results of the due diligence, it will pay $10 million as well as 3.125 million IAMGOLD common shares to be held in escrow, which would be released to the government of Suriname in about three equal tranches in 12-month intervals following the authorization of the agreement by Rosebel.

The adjustments to the purchase price will be calculated depending on the success of the drill program conducted by the Rosebel team over the first 24 months, but will be capped at $10 million.

The Saramacca property will require considerable future exploration to advance to a resource stage. Moreover, there is no certainty that the exploration target will result in a mineral resource being defined.

IAMGOLD currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Other well-ranked companies in the gold mining space include AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (NYSE:AU) , New Gold, Inc. (TO:NGD) and Sibanye Gold Limited (NYSE:SBGL) . All of them sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

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