TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Toronto-based Agnico-Eagle Mines will be looking to make more “strategic” investments in companies with early-stage projects, CEO Sean Boyd said on Thursday.

The company has consistently said that its acquisition strategy is to first take a minority position in juniors where it can contribute technical skills, possibly get a seat on the board, and then consider a bigger investment in the future.

Agnico announced on November 3 it had agreed to buy shares and warrants in Queenston Mining, taking its holding in the smaller firm to 12,7% on a partially diluted basis.

“We're still looking for these early-stage opportunities where we can build net-asset value using our technical skills and our exploration focus,” Boyd said on a conference call.

The company is currently looking at two or three other investments, in the range of $20-million to $50-million, he said.

“One of those is in a newer region for us, that will take us into a new geography in a country that we feel comfortable in. We will see how that transpires as we go forward," Boyd commented.

“But we have the financial capacity now and we have the technical capacity to expand that strategic investment portfolio,” he said.

Agnico-Eagle, which has mines in Canada, Mexico and Finland, moved on one of those strategic investments in April this year, when it announced an agreement to buy Comaplex Minerals, in which it already held about 12,3%.

Comaplex's main asset was the Meliadine gold project in Canada's Nunavut territory, which Agnico-Eagle plans to start up by late 2015.

DIVIDEND

Agnico-Eagle announced late on Wednesday that it would increase quarterly dividend payments by 256%, to $0,16 a share.

The firm also said it expects to produce between 1,13-million ounces and 1,23-million ounces of gold next year, and said output will rise to about 1,5-million ounces by 2014.

Total cash costs in 2011 are expected to average between $420 and $470/oz, the company said.

Despite the dividend news, shares in Agnico-Eagle fell 5,7% on Thursday, to C$76,16 apiece by 16:30 in Toronto.