Corporate history
The Iamgold International African Mining Gold Corporation (re-named Iamgold Corporation in 1997) was founded on March 27, 1990, by businessmen Mark Nathanson and William Pugliese to pursue a mining concession being offered in Mali.[15] Headquartered in Markham, Ontario, the company partnered with South African gold mining company Anglo American's AngloGold Ashanti to develop the Sadiola Gold Mine.[16] To fund this, Iamgold raised $60 million in an initial public offering becoming a publicly listed company on the Toronto Stock Exchange in 1996,[17] with an additional $13 million worth of shares being issued the following year.[18] With the success of developing the Sadiola Gold Mine, Iamgold and AngloGold Ashanti developed a second mine, the Yatela Mine, which began production in 2001. With profits now being realized, Iamgold was listed on the TSE 300 index and began issuing dividends to shareholders, uniquely the dividends were aid in bullion instead of cash.[19][20] Additional shares were issued in 2002 and they company became listed on the American Stock Exchange.[21] The company incurred a court-ordered $1.7 million fine, payable to Kinbauri Gold for withdrawing from a merger agreement.[22] Also in late-2002, in a $218 million in all-stock deal, Iamgold acquired royalty company Repadre Capital Corp. which had stakes in several gold and diamond mines in Canada and Africa, most significant of which was a 19% interest in Gold Fields's Tarkwa and Damang mines in Ghana.[23] With Repadre's Joseph Conway taking over as CEO of the combined company, the merger boosted Iamgold's attributable gold production to 421,000 ounces from 290,000 ounces the year before.[24]
After moving its headquarters from Markham to Toronto, the directors and CEOs of Iamgold and Wheaton River Minerals Ltd. agreed to a merger deal that would create a new company to be called Axiom Gold, valued at about $2.9 billion in 2004. However Iamgold stakeholders fought the proposal. BMO Nesbitt Burns and CIBC World Markets organized competing offers, Golden Star Resources Ltd. to acquire Iamgold for $1.2-billion and Coeur d'Alene Mines Corp. to acquire Wheaton River for $2.56 billion, whose rejection by the Iamgold and Wheaton River board of directors was fought in court.[25] While the shareholder votes were delayed due to the court cases, Wheaton River shareholders voted in favour of the merger but Iamgold shareholders rejected it.[26] The company subsequently made a failed bid to acquire assets of Gold Fields. With the failed merger and acquisition behind them, in the next two years the company acquired Australian company Gallery Gold and its Mupane gold mine in Botswana in an $235 million all-stock deal,[27] and Cambior with its Rosebel mine in Suriname, a Niobium mine in Quebec and several older Quebec gold mines in a $1.2 billion deal.
While 2008 proved to be their best year in terms of gold production, the company's stock price peaked in 2011 at $21.40. After CEO Joseph Conway stepped down in January 2010,[32] replaced by interim CEO Peter Jones until Enbridge executive Stephen Letwin was hired, the Essakane mine had commenced production in July 2010. In June 2011, Iamgold sold its 19% stake in the Tarkwa and Damang gold mines in Ghana to Gold Fields Limited for $667 million[33] and its Mupane gold mine in Botswana to Galane Gold Ltd. for $34 million.[34] In 2012, in a $608-million purchase, Iamgold acquired Trelawney Mining and Exploration and its Côté Lake gold deposit, near Sudbury, Ontario which they believed could be developed into a significant mine; although a 30% stake had to be sold to Sumitomo Metal Mining to help fund its development.[35][36] While the sales also helped finance the expansion of Essakane and the development of the Westwood mine, production would peak again at 882,000 ounces in 2017 and 2018, before falling to 762,000 ounces in 2019 as the Yatela mine became exhausted and Sadiola mine was sold in December 2019.
On October 18, 2022, Iamgold sold its Surinamese assets to Chinese miner, Zijin Mining, in order to fund the Côté Gold mine.[39]
Past mines (divested and closed)
Since opening the Sadiola Gold Mine in 1996, Iamgold has held stakes or outright owned numerous mines that later sold or ceased operation.
- The Sadiola Gold Mine in Mali was operated by joint-venture partner AngloGold Ashanti, each with a 41% working interest. It was sold to Allied Gold in 2019.[40]
- The Yatela Mine gold mine in Mali was operated by joint-venture partner AngloGold Ashanti, each with a 40% working interest. Mining activities had ceased in 2013, though processing continued into 2016.[41]
- The Tarkwa mine and Damang mine
