Centerra Gold Inc. (Centerra) and Premier Gold Mines Limited (Premier) entered into a 50/50 limited partnership for the joint exploration and development of Premier’s Trans-Canada Property in Northern Ontario. Under the terms of the joint venture agreements, Centerra will contribute up to $300 million in cash to the limited partnership in consideration for its 50 per cent interest in the limited partnership, while Premier will contribute all property, assets and rights it holds in respect of the Trans-Canada Property to the limited partnership in consideration for its 50 per cent interest in the limited partnership. Of the up to $300 million in cash to be contributed by Centerra, up to $115 million will be distributed to Premier and the remainder will be used to carry out exploration work on the Trans-Canada Property, subject to the achievement of certain project milestones. The transaction closed on March 9, 2015. Cormark Securities Inc. acted as financial advisor to Centerra and CIBC World Markets Inc. and Maxit Capital LP acted as financial advisors to Premier.
Centerra was represented internally by a team that consisted of Frank Herbert, Wendy Yu and Yousef Rehman and by Stikeman Elliott LLP with a team that consisted of William Braithwaite, John Ciardullo, Mike Devereux, Steve Bennett, Colin Burn and Erisa Mara (M&A), Dean Kraus and John O’Connor (tax), Mario Paura, Marc Simonik and Lynda Crago (real estate), Mike Kilby (competition), Larry Cobb (environmental) and Patrick Duffy (Aboriginal).
Premier was represented by Bennett Jones LLP with a team that consisted of Abbas Ali Khan, Ali Naushahi, Jamie Au, Lisa Telebar and William Edwards (M&A), Jane Helmstadter, Kyle Genga, Aleksandra Finelli, Natalia Iamundo, Jacob Dubelaar and Fabian Abele (real estate), Thomas Bauer and Philip Ward (tax), Adam Kalbfleisch and Kyle Donnelly (competition) and Carl Cunningham (employment).
