On January 22, 2015, IAMGOLD Corporation (IAMGOLD) completed the sale of its Niobec Mine (Niobec), one of the world’s three niobium producers, for total consideration of US$530 million. The buyer is a consortium comprised of Magris Resources Inc., CEF Holdings Limited, a Hong Kong-based investment company owned 50% by Cheung Kong (Holdings) Limited and 50% by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, and Temasek, a Singapore-based investment company. On closing, IAMGOLD received a cash payment of US$500 million. In addition, IAMGOLD is entitled to receive US$30 million when the adjacent rare earth element (REE) deposit goes into production and a 2% gross proceeds royalty will be payable on any REE production.
Fasken Martineau advised IAMGOLD with a team that included John Turner, Aaron Atkinson, Bradley Freelan, Jean M. Gagné, Martin Gagné, Martin Thiboutot and David Steinhauer (Corporate/M&A), Alain Ranger (Tax), Huy Do (Competition), Michael Bourassa (Mining), Andrew Nunes (IT), Jon Holmstrom (Banking), Laurence Déry (Labour) and Sébastien Roy (Intellectual Property).