Barrick Gold To Sell 50% Stake In Zaldívar Copper Mine To Antofagasta

(RTTNews) - Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX, ABX.TO) said Thursday that it has agreed to sell a 50% stake in the Zaldívar copper mine in Chile to Antofagasta Plc for US$1.005 billion in cash.

Antofagasta will pay Barrick US$980 million in cash upon closing and US$25 million in additional cash payments over the next five years for a 50% stake in the Zaldívar mine.

The deal is expected to be completed in late 2015.

Under the new ownership structure, Zaldívar will have a joint Barrick-Antofagasta Board of Directors consisting of three Barrick nominees and three Antofagasta nominees. Antofagasta will act as the operator of the mine and will be subject to oversight and direction by the Board. The initial Chairman of the Board will be appointed by Antofagasta and will hold the office of Chairman until January 1, 2017, at which point the right to appoint the Chairman will rotate between the parties on an annual basis on January 1 of each year.

Including Zaldívar, Barrick said, it has now announced deals valued at about US$1.85 billion, or nearly two thirds of its target, representing a substantial contribution to its debt reduction goal.