Junior Gold M&A - Primero Bid $220m for Brigus Gold

Joe Conway's Primero (P.TO)  have been one of the few precious metals miners to hold onto their market value in the last few years, holding good cash levels over $100m and generating strong cashflows from operations.

Conway was slated to lead a combined Primero and Northgate, which would have seen a combination of the Young Davidson Mine in Canda with Primero's Mexican focus, that merger would have valued Primero at $400m whilst market cap has grown to $550m today.

However Aurico's successful $1.5bn counter- bid prevented that as they built around El Chanate and Young Davidson, which has just entered commercial production, with Aurico now seeing a $950m total market cap.

Primero's previous acquisition, the Cerro Gallo project in Mexico, may need better metal prices.

They have now used that strong paper to bid for Canadian producer Brigus Gold (BRD.TO) (formerly Apollo Gold and Linear Gold).
Talks have been ongoing since June, clearly deals don't happen quickly.
Conway formerly developed Iamgold and counts Goldcorp as a insider holder of Primero after they sold their San Dimas mine in Mexico to Mala Noche resources which changed name to Primero.