TORONTO

— Kinross Gold Corp. is paying about $250-million (U.S.) to buy Minera Santa Rosa SCM, owner of the Lobo-Marte gold project in northern Chile, from Teck Cominco Ltd. and Anglo American PLC.

Lobo-Marte is about midway between two Kinross mines, Maricunga and La Coipa, and the acquisition “adds another attractive deposit to our development portfolio, while giving us access to a further 30,000 hectares for exploration in a highly prospective, mining-friendly district,” Kinross CEO Tye Burt stated Thursday.

Kinross has signed a binding letter of intent to acquire Teck's 60 per cent interest in Minera Santa Rosa for 5.6 million Kinross shares and $40-million in cash. Teck also will get a 1.75 per cent net smelter return royalty on 60 per cent of Lobo-Marte's future production if the gold price is over $760 per ounce.

For Anglo American's 40 per cent stake, Kinross is paying $140-million in cash.

Teck, as manager of Minera, has reported an indicated resource of 5.4 million ounces of gold at Lobo-Marte, plus an inferred resource of half a million ounces.

“The acquisition allows Kinross to further consolidate its presence in the Maricunga district of Chile,” said Burt, whose company employs 5,000 people at mines in the United States, Brazil, Russia and Chile.

“There is also the potential to leverage Kinross' experience in cold-weather heap leach mining at altitude, and to improve project economics through various processing options, including the use of the existing La Coipa mill for processing Lobo-Marte ore.”