Quadra Mining Patience Pays Off

The Financial Post reports in its Tuesday edition that showing a little patience, Quadra Mining was able to go bargain-hunting and buy a top rival at a low price. The Post's Peter Koven writes the Vancouver company has been a long-rumoured mergers player because of its solid balance sheet. Paul Blythe, chief executive officer, said he has even taken positions in a number of possible targets. He is reluctant to do a hostile takeover, and he had trouble finding willing partners when valuations were going up. Today, valuations have collapsed and many distressed companies are desperate for capital, making them prime takeover targets. One example is Centenario Copper, which Quadra agreed to snap up Monday for about $57-million in stock. "It's a dead ringer for what we're trying to do, [which is] continuing to add block-byblock to our copper production profile," Mr. Blythe said. "Our game plan has always been to get to 500 million pounds. This gets us to 300 million." Centenario's flagship project is the Franke deposit in Chile. The company was pushing it toward production last year until it hit a financing shortfall of $26-million (U.S.) in November. Centenario's only other option was severe dilution.