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NEWS-LEADING DEVELOPMENTS Despite a recent $3.09-billion noncash writedown of its Tasiast gold operation in Mauritania, Kinross said it still has confidence in the mine's future prospects. an after-tax, non-cash impairment charge of $3.09 billion for its Tasiast gold project in Mauritania. The charge included $2.13 billion related to goodwill and an after-tax charge of $964.5 million related to property, plant and equipment. The impairment test for Tasiast was based on a 30,000-mt/d optimized mill model, compared with a 60,000-mt/d model used for the 2011 annual impairment test. Kinross acquired its 100% interest in the Tasiast gold project on September 17, 2010, upon completing its acquisition of Red Back Mining in a transaction valued at $7.1 billion. Kinross expects to complete a prefeasibility study for construction of a mid-sized CIL mill in the 30,000-mt/d range in the first quarter of 2013. The company has decided not to proceed with further study of a 60,000-mt/d mill option. Work to date on the pre-feasibility suggests that while a smaller mill will result in lower annual production, it will reduce capital requirements and execution risk, provide improved per-ounce margins and cash flow, and preserve future optionality and expandability. Kinross CEO J. Paul Rollinson said, "While we recorded a non-cash impairment charge related to our Tasiast project, our pre-feasibility study work and recent exploration results continue to increase our confidence in Tasiast's potential and confirm its importance as part of our long-term future. www.e-mj.com Kinross reported a full-year 2012 net loss, including impairment charges, of $2.55 billion. Silver Wheaton Acquires Gold Streams from Vale Silver Wheaton and Vale announced in early February 2013 that they have entered into a binding term sheet agreement for Silver Wheaton to acquire 25% of the life-of-mine by-product gold production from Vale's Salobo copper mine in Brazil and 70% of the by-product gold production, for a 20-year term, from six Vale mines and a development project in the Sudbury district, Canada. Consideration for the acquisition is $1.9 billion in cash, plus 10 million Silver Wheaton warrants with a strike price of $65 and a term of 10 years. The $1.9-billion cash payment is split $1.33 million for the Salobo gold stream and $570 million for the Sudbury gold stream. In addition, Silver Wheaton will make ongoing payments of the lesser of $400/oz (subject to a 1% annual inflation adjustment from 2016 for Salobo) and the prevailing market price for each ounce of gold delivered under the agreement. Gold production from these assets will accrue to Silver Wheaton retroactively from January 1, 2013. Silver Wheaton expects the agreement to deliver an average of 110,000 oz/y of gold to the company over the next 20 years, approximately 60,000 oz/y from Salobo and 50,000 oz/y from Sudbury. Vale's Salobo mine is based on the largest copper deposit ever found in Brazil. The mine began operating in May 2012 with a designed mill throughput capacity of 12 million mt/y. Vale has subsequently begun a second phase of construction to expand mill capacity to 24 million mt/y by the end of 2015. Salobo has mine reserves of more than 1 billion mt at copper and gold grades of 0.69% and 0.43 g/mt, respectively. The Sudbury gold stream covers the Coleman, Copper Cliff, Creighton, Garson, Stobie and Totten mines, and the development-stage Victor project. All of the orebodies contain a mix of nickel, copper, platinum group metals, cobalt, gold and silver. The addition of the Vale streams will increase Silver Wheaton's percentage of revenue generated from gold production over the next five years from 12% to a peak of around 25%. Silver Wheaton President and CEO Randy Smallwood said, "While we have traditionally focused on silver, we have never been averse to strategically adding 'the right' gold streams to our portfolio. The world-class nature of the Sudbury operations and the Salobo mine, with its exciting expansion and exploration potential, along with the quality of Vale as an operating partner, convinced us that these assets would be ideal additions to Silver Wheaton's portfolio." Coeur Wins Bidding for Orko Silver Coeur d'Alene Mines and Orko Silver announced an agreement on February 20, 2013, whereby Coeur will acquire Orko in a transaction having a total value of approximately C$350 million in cash and Coeur shares. The Coeur-Orko agreement followed an announcement by First Majestic Silver on February 19 that it would not exercise its right to match Coeur's offer. First Majestic started the bidding for Orko in mid-December 2012 with an agreed offer to acquire Orko, assuming Orko did not receive a superior proposal from another company. Coeur's offer was deemed a superior proposal. Orko's primary asset is its La Preciosa silver property in Durango state, Mexico, 47 km northeast of the city of Durango. In September 2012, Orko announced an updated resource estimate for La Preciosa of 99 million oz of silver indicated in 29.7 million mt grading 104 MARCH 2013 • E&MJ; 5