Xstrata Enters Northeastern British Columbia Coal Region

Xstrata completed two separate acquisitions of contiguous coal exploration projects with an aggregate value of $200 mil-lion in the northeastern British Columbia coal region.

The first, completed on August 4, 2011, was to acquire First Coal through a novel concurrent private take-over bid/plan of arrangement structure.

Subsequently, Xstrata acquired from Cline Mining Corporation its Lossan coal exploration project in the region, a transaction that closed on October 12, 2011.

Bennett Jones LLP acted for Xstrata in both matters with a team led by Ken Klassen (M&A) and that included Adam Taylor and Russell Drew (M&A); Claire Kennedy (tax); Brad Gilmour, Deirdre Sheehan and Chuck Davies (First Nations and regulatory) and Derek Bell and Jonathan Bell (litigation).

McMillan LLP acted for First Coal Corporation with a team led by Karl Gustafson, QC, (M&A and corporate) and in-cluding Bernie Zinkhofer and Amandeep Sandhu (securities); Cheri Bocking (corporate); Peter Botz (tax), Keith Clark (First Nations) and Peter Reardon (litigation).

McLean & Kerr LLP represented Cline Mining with a team led by Jim Blake (securities/corporate) and including Lucie Kroumova, Nadia Somani and Jenna Rucas (securities/corporate).

Lawyer(s)

Lucie Kroumova Derek J. Bell Peter Botz Nadia Somani Deirdre A. Sheehan Claire M.C. Kennedy Keith Clark Adam Taylor Russel W. Drew Kenneth G. Klassen Bernhard J. Zinkhofer Bradley S. Gilmour Peter Reardon Amandeep Sandhu

Firm(s)

Bennett Jones LLP McMillan LLP McLean & Kerr LLP