The world’s second largest gold producer by market value, Goldcorp Inc (GG) is acquiring gold miner Canplats Resources Corp for about C$238 million ($229 million) to establish a network of satellite mines around its Penasquito gold project in Mexico. Each Canplats share would be exchanged for 0.074 of a common share of Goldcorp and an interest in a new exploration company. The offer values Canplats at about C$3.60 ($3.46) per share based upon the closing price of Goldcorp shares on Nov. 13. The offer represents a premium of about 41% over the C$2.55 million ($2.45 million) closing price of Canplats shares. The transaction is expected to close in January 2010. The Boards of Directors of both Goldcorp and Canplats have approved the deal. However, a two-thirds majority of Canplats outstanding shareholders are required to vote in favor of the offer for it to conclude. Canplats has ...

Leading gold producer, Goldcorp’s (GG) adjusted net profit in the third quarter of 2009 more than doubled to 19 cents from last year’s 9 cents on higher gold prices and lower cash costs per ounce of gold. Reported earnings were also higher than the Zacks Consensus estimate of 15 cents.  However, on a GAAP basis, net earnings dropped 62% to 16 cents from 42 cents in the previous year due to a foreign exchange loss of $28.1 million. Revenues were up 25% to $691.9 million from $552.2 million in the previous year driven by a 12% rise in average realized prices to $968 per ounce from $865 per ounce in the year-ago quarter and a 9% increase in gold sales volumes to 601,500 ounces.  Gold production increased by 11% year over year to 621,100 ounces compared with 557,400 ounces in 2008 following higher production at the Red ...

Gold developed a slight upward trend late in Hong Kong and rode that trend mostly sideways through the end of the day to a marginal gain. The yellow metal closed at $925.30/oz., up $4.50. Overnight, gold is up sharply. 

Platinum’s graph looked quite similar to gold yesterday, as the precious metal developed what looked like the gentlest of trends in the black but managed to tack on quite a bit before all was said and done, ending the day at $1129/oz., up $16. Overnight, platinum is way up.

Silver rounded out what ended up being a solid but uneventful day for the precious metals by showing the same slight trend as gold and platinum, ending at $12.87/oz., up 4 cents. Overnight, silver is trending much higher. (Click here for charts)

Gold had kind of a blah day, but I’m sure investors don’t mind too much since it was still able to post

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Most people think of warrants as being associated primarily with micro/nano cap i.e. junior gold and silver mining companies but that is not entirely the case. Of the 35 companies offering warrants of 24 or more months duration (of which there are 47 in total) 6 are large-cap commodity based companies (2 gold mining companies; 2 royalty companies; 1 oil and gas company; and 1 molybdenum miner). Below is a description of each of these companies and the performance of their stock and associated warrants week-ending July 10th.

Silver Wheaton Corp. (SLW) is a silver focused royalty company with nine long-term purchase agreements with companies in Mexico, Sweden, Peru, Portugal, Greece, USA and Canada to purchase a fixed percentage of their silver production at contracted prices for the life of the mines involved.

Blackmont Capital analyst Richard Gray has called Silver Wheaton’s May 2009 $243-million acquisition of smaller rival Silverstone …

Silver Wheaton Corporation announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement pursuant to which Silver Wheaton will acquire all of the outstanding common shares of Silverstone in exchange for 0.185 common shares of Silver Wheaton for each common share of Silverstone Resources.

In analyzing the specifics of this agreement, we see that based on the 20-day volume-weighted average of Silver Wheaton’s common shares of C$8.58, the transaction value per Silverstone common share is C$1.59, and the total transaction value is approximately C$206 million. This represents a premium of 40% based on the 20-day volume-weighted average of both companies’ common shares on the TSX for Silver Wheaton and the TSX Venture for Silverstone.

Silverstone’s board of directors and officers along with Capstone Mining Corp. (”Capstone”), its largest shareholder (representing an aggregate of 30.5 million shares (24%) of Silverstone, fully diluted); have entered into support agreements in respect of the transaction. Based

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RBC Capital Markets out with some bullish ratings on Yamana Gold Inc. (NYSE:AUY) and Goldcorp (NYSE:GG).  Gold is down this morning to just above $800, yet the analysts ...