PRECIOUS METAL PRODUCERS

[NYBob]

Quebec gold producer Aurizon Mines seeks better offer than $780-million bid by Alamos Gold[t][/t]

BY ROBERT GIBBENS, SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE JANUARY 23, 2013

MONTREAL — Quebec gold producer

Aurizon Mines Ltd.
said Wednesday a $780-million cash-and-stock bid from Toronto-based
Alamos Gold Inc. is “opportunistic” and too low and
it is seeking a better offer elsewhere.

It has adopted a standard shareholder rights plan to gain time to
find a white knight to improve on Alamos’s $4.65-a-share offer,
which is open for 35 days. Alamos already owns 16 per cent of
Aurizon.

Aurizon said the Alamos bid fails to compensate
shareholders for the
true value of their assets and contains geopolitical and
development risks. “The board is exploring the full range of value-
maximizing alternatives.”

Alamos’s only producing mine is in Mexico and it has development
properties in Turkey and elsewhere.

Putting its assets with the
debt-free Aurizon and its Casa Berardi mine (140,000 ounces
annually) in northwestern Quebec would create an intermediate gold
producer with annual output of more than 300,000 ounces, it argues.

Aurizon is developing more reserves at Casa Berardi and also has a
future gold mine to the southwest and several development
properties in the same area near Rouyn-Noranda.

Several analysts rated the possibility of a counterbid as slender.

Brian Quast, analyst with BMO Capital Markets, expects the Alamos
bid to succeed in its current form.

Aurizon shareholders meet March 7 to vote on the shareholder
rights plan.
Aurizon shares traded at $4.74, down 0.2 per cent, early Wednesday.

Read more:
http://www.montrealgazette.com/Quebec+gold+producer+Aurizon+Mines+seeks+better+offer+than+million+Alamos+Gold/7860569/story.html#ixzz2JLvkofiB