The week has been full of surprises in the bidding war over Lac Minerals. Just as the precocious upstart, Royal Oak Mines, which originally put the Lac ball into play, seemed to be winning over frustrated shareholders, Lac CEO Peter Allen, the son of founder Jack Allen, ups and quits.
He said he didn’t want the battle to deteriorate into a war over personalities. More likely, it probably became brutally clear, during Lac’s hastily convened tete-a-tetes with its big investors, that Allen himself was a negative factor.
That’s a sad testament to the son who transformed his father’s motley assemblage of mines into a major and modern gold player. Peter Allen made Lac Canada’s third-largest gold miner in spite of the devastating loss of the billion-dollar Williams mine near Hemlo to Corona. And yet, even after buying the assets of Bond Gold, Allen somehow failed to take the company that final, decisive step where shareholders would simply spurn any bid from an impudent, mid-ranked company the likes of Royal Oak.
But, as we said, the Royal Oak bid served to put Lac in play. Then, along comes the darling of the gold equities, American Barrick, and ups the ante. The question now is, can Lac — a company that has been rather short on miracles and magic — pull a rabbit out of a hat? There have been reports of its holding talks with “other parties.” But seriously, it’s hard to imagine Lac shareholders rejecting American Barrick’s cash-and-share offer. However, let’s hedge our bets. There may be more suprises yet.
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