Photo by: Augusta Resource Corp
TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Base metals miner Hudbay Minerals on Thursday announced that it had acquired 92% of project developer Augusta Resource outstanding shares, giving it firm control of the Rosemont copper project, near Tucson, Arizona.
Hudbay also announced an extension of its offer to acquire the remaining outstanding shares to July 29, giving Augusta shareholders another chance to tender outstanding shares under the current offer.
The offer currently entails 0.315 of a Hudbay common and 0.17 of a warrant to acquire a common share of Hudbay for each Augusta share tendered.
As on Thursday, Hudbay had taken up 116.23-million Augusta shares. The company said it might offer a subsequent acquisition transaction to obtain the remaining shares not tendered by July 29, but could not guarantee the same terms as the current offer.
Hudbay also announced that it would now assume management positions with Augusta and replace Augusta's current senior management team and certain members of the Augusta board with its own nominees.
It said David Bryson, Alan Hair, Patrick Donnelly and Patrick Merrin would be appointed to the Augusta board, joining current directors Lenard Boggio, Timothy Baker and Durand Eppler. Gilmour Clausen, Christopher Jennings, Robert Pirooz, Robert Wares and Richard Warke will resign.
Hudbay intends to delist the Augusta shares from all stock exchanges and to cause Augusta to cease to be a reporting issuer under applicable North American securities laws, and to cease to be a public company in the US and Germany.
Hudbay and Augusta also revealed on Thursday that the companies had entered into a C$40-million unsecured loan agreement. The loan is intended to provide Augusta with short-term working capital amounts.