Goldcorp to Buy Wheaton River Minerals

Goldcorp Inc. said Sunday that it had agreed to buy its Canadian gold-mining competitor Wheaton River Minerals Ltd. for about $2 billion in stock.

The agreement, in principle, is for Goldcorp to offer one share for every four shares of Wheaton River.

That represents an offer of 4.29 Canadian dollars ($3.60) for each Wheaton River share based on Friday’s closing price of Goldcorp common shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

That’s a premium of about 7% to Wheaton River’s average closing market price for the previous 30 days on the Toronto Stock Exchange, the companies said.

The offer is subject to board approval of a definitive agreement, the completion of due diligence investigations and approval from Wheaton River’s financial advisor that the consideration offered is fair to its shareholders.

Goldcorp and Wheaton River said they had agreed to negotiate exclusively with each other for 21 days and to exchange confidential information in order to settle a definitive agreement as soon as possible.

Under the agreement, Robert McEwen, chairman and chief executive of Goldcorp, would be chairman of the combined company and Ian Telfer, chairman and chief executive of Wheaton River, would become chief executive.

The board would be composed of 10 members, of which five would be current directors of Wheaton River.

The combined company would be expected to have 2005 gold production in excess of 1.1 million ounces. Goldcorp and Wheaton River expect production to grow to 1.5 million ounces by 2007.

The combined company’s market capitalization is expected to be about $5 billion.