Barrick Gold has entered into a support agreement with Arizona Star Resource under which Barrick has agreed to make an offer to acquire all of Arizona Star’s common shares, valuing Arizona Star at some C$773 million on a fully diluted basis. The offer has been unanimously approved by the board of directors of Arizona Star. All of the directors and officers of Arizona Star have entered into a written agreement to tender their shares to Barrick’s offer.

Barrick has also entered into a lock-up agreement with Arizona Star’s largest shareholder, FCMI Resources, pursuant to which FCMI has agreed, among other things, to tender its Arizona Star shares to Barrick’s offer. The shares held by FCMI and the directors and officers of Arizona Star represent, in aggregate, approximately 35% of the outstanding shares on a fully diluted basis.

Arizona Star owns a 51% interest in the Cerro Casale deposit in the Maricunga district of Region III in Chile; Kinross owns the remaining 49%. Cerro Casale is one of the world’s largest undeveloped gold and copper deposits.

“Cerro Casale is an attractive, long-life asset that we look forward to adding to our unrivalled project pipeline,” said Greg Wilkins, Barrick President and CEO. “Cerro Casale will be a very complementary addition with potential synergies for our asset base in Chile where we have been operating for well over a decade. We are pleased to have reached a friendly agreement in the current circumstances which are conducive to the project moving forward.”

Barrick’s assets in the region include the Zaldívar copper mine in Chile, the Pascua-Lama gold-silver project in Chile/Argentina, the Veladero gold mine in Argentina, and the Lagunas Norte and Pierina gold mines in Peru.