Korea National Oil Corporation Acquires Newmont Oil Sands Assets

On August 16, 2006, Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC) completed the acquisition of a 100 per cent interest in the BlackGold oil sands assets of Newmont Mining Corporation of Canada Limited for a purchase price of $310 million. State-owned KNOC is South Korea's largest oil and gas exploration and production company. Newmont Mining Corporation of Canada Limited is a subsidiary of Denver-based Newmont Mining Corporation, a leading gold producer with operations on five continents.

The BlackGold assets comprise 9,600 contiguous acres located in the Athabasca region of Alberta, which are estimated by independent consultants to contain 305 million barrels of recoverable bitumen resource, with a projected production capacity of 35,000 barrels per day using steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) technology.

Korea National Oil Corporation was represented by Bennett Jones LLP, with a team led by Jean-Pierre Pham (energy, M&A), and that comprised Pat Maguire (energy), Greg Johnson (tax), Andrew Lamb (energy) and Kristen Lozynsky (regulatory).

Newmont Mining Corporation of Canada Limited was represented by Sharon E. Dowdall, its vice president and secretary, and Lawson Lundell LLP, with a team led by Jerry Schramm (energy, M&A) and that comprised Chris Baldwin (mining), Linda Garvey (energy), Andrew Bedford (energy), Monica Balaski (corporate) and Valerie Mann (competition).