A worker cleans a freshly produced bar of gold at the Boroo gold mine in Boroo, owned by Centerra Gold, about 150 km north of the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator in this July 5, 2006 file photo.NIR ELIAS/Reuters
Fresh from buying a gold property in Ontario, Centerra Gold Inc. is on the hunt for another acquisition.
Centerra, whose key mine in Kyrgyzstan is perpetually under threat of a shutdown from the local government, spent an initial $85-million for the Canadian gold property.
The Toronto-headquartered company has found itself in a somewhat fortunate position during the gold downturn. Centerra hasn't had to sell prized assets to preserve its balance sheet and instead has cash to spend.
"This lower gold price environment is likely to create opportunity for people like ourselves that do have cash available to look at acquisitions," Centerra's chief executive Ian Atkinson said in an interview.
Centerra has just over $500-million in cash, some of which will be used to develop its Canadian property as well as two other projects in Turkey and Mongolia.
Mr. Atkinson said Centerra was looking at gold projects as well as mines that are already in production. He would not say how much Centerra could spend on an acquisition.
The company was one of many gold miners that was invited to look at AngloGold Ashanti's large gold mine in Colorado, but did not make it past the first round of bidding. That mine was eventually sold to Newmont Mining Corp. for under $1-billion.
Rachelle Younglai