The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
An investment expert touted the pending sale of HBMS to Ontzinc Corp. as a positive step forward for Flin Flon yesterday. Gorden Glenn of Toronto-based McFarlane Gordon Inc., part of the financing syndicate of the deal, shared his expertise as a guest speaker at the Rotary Club's noonhour meeting. "I think it's a good transaction for Ontzinc, I think it's ultimately a good transaction for Anglo American to divest of what is a world-class asset," said Glenn at the meeting, held at the Green Room of the Flin Flon Community Hall. "It's a win-win for equity investors to have the opportunity to finally own a little bit of central Canadian mine production. It's a good opportunity." Glenn, the metals and mining analyst for the financial services company, said the commodity price outlook is good news for HBMS, currently owned by Anglo American of London, England. "We're in a very robust copper and zinc price environment right now," he said. "Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting is making a lot of money right now. That will become part of Ontzinc's future as the transaction concludes." Glenn, who once worked as a geologist in the area, predicted the new ownership will lure more ore exploration to the area. "There's lots of opportunities for new discoveries in the belt. I think as a public company they're going to attract more explorers," he said. "I think that's good for the economy in general. "In the past, Anglo American has controlled this camp through Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting, and there really hasn't been any economic incentive for a junior or even a mid-sized company to come up to the Flin Flon area because any discovery (made), you're going to have to deal with Anglo and Hudson Bay, and that usually wasn't a level playing field. "But now that Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting is going to be a public company, with a 12-year reserve base currently, it's incumbent upon them to achieve a maximum valuation of their public stock. One of the ways to do that is to make sure that they can demonstrate to the market that they've got a good reserve base for the significant infrastructure that they have up here in Flin Flon, so it's a good opportunity for junior companies to come up, cut deals, start exploring and hopefully make discoveries." Glenn joined two other McFarlane Gordon Inc. representatives, Andrew Chan and former Flin Flonner Bernie Plett, in making his presentation. Ontzinc, based in Toronto, expects to complete the $325-million purchase of HBMS by the end of the year.
