The CPPIB, which invests on behalf of 18 million Canadians,
said it has bought a 50 percent stake in two downtown Vancouver
office properties that are worth C$230 million ($232.83
million). The CPPIB’s equity investment, before closing costs,
adjustments and working capital, is C$115 million.

The other half is owned by Oxford Properties, the real
estate investing arm of OMERS, the Ontario Municipal Employees
Retirement System, another major Canadian pension fund and the
CPPIB’s largest real estate partner.

“The downtown Vancouver office market is very attractive for
long-term investors such as CPPIB,” Peter Ballon, the fund’s
vice-president and head of real estate investments, said in a
statement.

Vancouver has been identified by the CPPIB as one of three
target Canadian markets for office properties and the
acquisitions on Tuesday mean it will own stakes six buildings in
a market where quality assets rarely exchange hands. Its other
target cities in Canada are Toronto and Calgary.

“Calgary happens to be a very attractive market but it also
a very hot market right now and we haven’t been as active in
that market as we have been in Toronto,” Ballon told Reuters in
an interview.

CPPIB is still on the hunt for real estate acquisitions. It
is mostly interested in emerging powerhouses such as Brazil and
China, but it also has its eye on more established centers.

Ballon, who is in charge of real estate investments for
North and South America, said the CPPIB preferred different
sectors in different geographies, almost always favoring
large-scale assets.

The CPPIB has been especially aggressive in real estate
since the global economic crisis of 2008-09, first in the
hard-hit office sector and then the retail sector.

“Now we’re working sort of on the next evolution in terms of
where the opportunities are,” Ballon said. “We are very bullish
on the U.S. recovery.”

The CPPIB, which has investing horizons going out as far as
75 years, had a C$14.4 billion real estate portfolio as of Dec.
31, equal to 9.5 percent of its assets.

Kinross, the world’s seventh-largest gold miner, owns some
huge, largely unexploited assets spread across four continents,
making it an appealing target for bigger players who are always
on the hunt for deposits to replenish their reserves.

Despite a huge reserve base its stock, which traded for
nearly C$19 at the start of 2011, closed at C$9.90 on Friday as
mounting concerns about the cost of developing its flagship
project sapped investor confidence.

“We haven’t seen anyone make a move on Kinross yet, but to
me, I would think that for anyone who wants a company with a lot
of growth assets, this makes a lot of sense,” said Stifel
Nicolaus analyst George Topping. “It’s the cheapest senior by a
long shot.”

Bankers point to Barrick Gold and Goldcorp,
Canada’s top two gold miners, as companies with the means to
consider an acquisition. U.S.-based gold mining giant Newmont
Mining Corp was also named as a possible buyer.

On an in situ basis, the proven and probable gold reserves
of Kinross are being valued by the market at less than $200 an
ounce, well under Barrick’s reserves at some $325 per ounce and
even Newmont and Goldcorp at about $275 and $580 an ounce.
Although this does not factor in capital and operating costs, it
highlights the appeal for potential bidders.

At the BMO Global Metals and Mining Conference in Hollywood,
Florida, last month, the future of Kinross was the subject of
much speculation, from the meeting rooms to the bars.

Kinross Chief Executive Tye Burt got the ball rolling early,
saying the company may consider selling its 50 percent stake in
the Crixas underground gold mine in Brazil and its 25 percent
stake in the Cerro Casale gold-silver-copper project in Chile.

“It was insane how many people were talking about a Kinross
breakup at that conference,” said one U.S. investment banker
focused on the resource sector who spoke off the record because
of company policy.

BLESSING TO BANE

But despite these selling points, bankers and analysts said
that the factors keeping the stock appetizingly cheap may also
drive prospective buyers away.

The main obstacles are the Tasiast gold mine in Mauritania
and Chirano mine in Ghana, brought into the Kinross fold with
considerable fanfare in its blockbuster $7.1 billion acquisition
of Red Back Mining in 2010.

The assets have gone from being a blessing to a bane for the
company, which has seen its market capitalization shaved nearly
by half since September as concerns have mounted over the cost
of developing Tasiast and other projects.

Kinross earlier this year said it would take a massive $2.94
billion non-cash goodwill impairment charge related to its
acquisition of the Tasiast and Chirano mines.

“On a per ounce basis of reserves, they paid through the
nose for Tasiast,” Morningstar analyst Min Tang-Varner said of
the asset, which now accounts for over 20 percent of the miner’s
combined gold reserves and resources.

“Time has passed and the market is just getting antsy,” she
said. “They’ve paid a steep price for it and we haven’t seen
anything that really justifies the acquisition price paid out.”

Bankers said any acquisition approach for Kinross would
likely have to be friendly because prospective buyers will want
to see data on Tasiast before tabling an offer.

Kinross declined to comment about the takeover speculation.

“We would note that these rumors result from our share price
being undervalued, which in turn suggests that Kinross currently
presents a significant buying opportunity,” said Steve Mitchell,
the miner’s head of corporate communications.

BIG SHAREHOLDERS COULD SPUR DEAL

Potential suitors for Kinross also have their own
situations to consider before making a bid.

Barrick, the world’s top gold miner, is still integrating
the assets of copper miner Equinox, which it acquired for more
than $7 billion less than a year ago. Another major takeover may
not be well received by shareholders.

While some like Goldcorp’s prospects as a buyer, skeptics
note that the current assets of Kinross have much higher average
operating costs. This means an acquisition would move Goldcorp
up the cost curve, an unattractive prospect in a sector that is
fighting to keep costs in check.

Goldcorp Chief Executive Chuck Jeannes has also stressed
that his company intends to focus on growth in low-risk mining
jurisdictions. The most promising Kinross assets are in more
politically risky places like Ecuador and Russia.

Newmont, the world’s second-largest gold miner, could
be a more likely suitor, as the company may want new assets
to sink its teeth into given setbacks on projects like Hope Bay
in the Canadian Arctic and Conga in Peru.

Barrick, Goldcorp and Newmont all declined comment for this
story, or were not immediately reachable.

In the end, the fate of Kinross may be decided by a
handful of big institutional shareholders, who together control
20 to 30 percent of the stock in each of the four miners. If the
Kinross share price stays depressed these investors could nudge
management toward a deal.

Kinross typically holds its annual shareholder meeting
in the first week of May. It has yet to set a date for this
year.

“You can expect some shareholder activism in this case,”
said one Toronto-based investment banker, who declined to be
identified because of company policy.

In the province of Quebec, Autorité des marchés financiers said it intends to approve the proposal by Maple Group, a consortium of 13 banks and other financial institutions, despite concerns it would create a near-monopoly in Canadian securities trading.

In a separate statement, Maple said the Ontario Securities Commission is drafting terms and conditions that could allow the OSC to approve the deal. A 30-day public comment period will follow before a final decision by the provincial regulator.

The so-called recognition orders suggest that Maple is closer to resolving any objections that the regulator covering the financial hub of Toronto may have raised since the proposal was unveiled.

“It sounds like they may have some sort of a deal,” said Doug Clark, an expert in market structure and managing director of research at Investment Technology Group. “Maple Group and the OSC may have agreed on some sort of terms to get this thing through.”

Luc Bertrand, vice-chairman of National Bank Financial, a member of the consortium, said he thought the drafting of the orders by the OSC was significant.

“There’s a view that what the Maple proposal is driving towards is philosophically fine,” Bertrand said in an interview with Reuters. “That’s how I read this.

TMX Chief Executive Tom Kloet said the developments give the deal some momentum. “Having both Quebec and Ontario in a position to approve it is an important step,” he said on the sidelines of a futures trading conference in Boca Raton, Florida.

The OSC, Canada’s main securities watchdog, said it is forging ahead in the review process and crafting an enhanced regulatory framework for the proposed entity, and that the draft orders are expected to be published in April.

“As these issues are novel and complex, it is important to seek comment from the public before making a final decision on the recognition orders,” Susan Greenglass, the OSC’s director of market regulation, said in an e-mail statement.

COMPETITION CONCERNS PERSIST

Still, the road to approval remains long. The deal must still win approval of provincial regulators in Alberta and British Columbia. As well, the federal Competition Bureau said on Thursday that it has serious concerns about the proposed takeover, repeating a view expressed in November.

If its bid is successful, Maple would control some 85 percent of Canadian stock trading, and drastically alter the structure for clearing and settling transactions.

In addition to the exchanges already owned by TMX, the plan calls for the acquisition of Alpha Group, the TSX’s biggest competitor, as well as Canadian Depository for Securities, or CDS, a clearing house run by some of the banks that belong to Maple.

“A significant and material change to the competitive consequences to the proposed transaction would be required to sufficiently address the commissioner’s serious concerns,” Competition Bureau spokeswoman Alexa Keating said on Thursday.

Quebec, home to TMX’s Montreal Exchange for derivatives, and Ontario, home to the Toronto Stock Exchange and the small-cap TSX Venture Exchange, held separate hearings on the deal late last year. Regulators have been silent about their intentions since then, making investors uneasy.

On Thursday, TMX shares finished the day up C$1.34, or 3.1 percent, at C$45.09, after climbing more than 4 percent to C$45.69, their highest level Maple made its C$50-a-share offer official last June.

“It signals optimism on the part of investors that the deal is going to get done,” said Tom Caldwell, chairman of Caldwell Financial, which holds TMX shares. “It’s the first movement, the first sound we’ve heard in a long time of radio silence on this matter.”

A range of objections to the original proposal emerged during the provincial hearings. Small broker-dealers are wary of the proposed composition of the new company’s board, saying the big banks will have too much influence.

There are also worries about the enlarged company’s dominance over Canadian equity trading and pricing models for the clearing and settlement of trades under the new structure. At present, clearing and settlement are done on a cost-recovery basis.

The recognition orders drafted by the OSC are expected to provide more insight on how regulators addressed those issues.

Maple also said it was in discussions with its investors and lenders to extend support agreements beyond an April 30 deadline.

($1=$0.99 Canadian)

(Additional reporting Euan Rocha in Toronto, Louise Egan in Ottawa and Thomas Polansek in Boca Raton, Florida; Editing by Frank McGurty and Rob Wilson)

The nod by Quebec’s Autorite des marches financiers is a
first sign that provincial regulators might allow the
transaction proposed by the Maple Group Acquisition Corp despite
concerns that it would create a near-monopoly in Canadian
financial trading.

Quebec and Ontario, the home of Canada’s financial center in
Toronto, held separate hearings on the deal late last year.
Regulators have been silent about their intentions since then,
making investors uneasy.

After the AMF’s statement, shares of TMX jumped more than 4
percent to C$45.57, signaling fresh confidence that Maple’s
C$50-a-share transaction will succeed.

In addition to the AMF’s approval, the deal must pass muster
with Ontario regulators and with the Federal Competition Bureau.

TMX’s portfolio includes Montreal Exchange for derivatives
in Quebec, as well as the Ontario-based Toronto Stock Exchange
and TSX Venture Exchange for the small-capitalization issue.

PROGRESS REPORTED IN OSC TALKS

Maple – a consortium of 13 banks, pension funds and other
financial institutions – said talks with the Ontario Securities
Commission were progressing. The regulator will publish draft
orders for a 30-day public comment period before making a final
decision, Maple said in a statement that followed AMF’s.

Maple also said it was in discussions with its investors
and lenders to extend support agreements beyond an April 30
deadline, signaling confidence that a deal will eventually get
done.

“These developments move us closer to fulfilling our vision
to create an integrated exchange and clearing group that can
deliver significant benefits to Canada and participants in
Canada’s capital markets,” Maple spokesman Luc Bertrand said in
a statement.

If its bid is successful, Maple would control some 85
percent of Canadian stock trading.

In addition to the exchanges already owned by TMX, the deal
calls for the acquisition of Alpha Group, the TSX’s biggest
competitor, as well as the Canadian Depositary for Securities,
or CDS, a clearing house run by some of the banks that belong to
Maple Group.

TMX shares were up C$1.57 at C45.32 in early trading on the
Toronto Stock Exchange.

That’s why Canada’s Eagle Hill Exploration jumped at
the chance last month to raise equity capital at a price barely
above its stock’s 52-week low, even though it faced criticism in
the blogosphere for diluting its shares.

The 36-million share issue on Valentine’s Day raised C$7.2
million ($7.2 million) for the tiny Quebec explorer at 16.5
cents a share, just up from the stock’s 52-week low of 11.5
cents, hit on Feb. 9, and less than half its year-earlier high
of 34.5 cents.

“We’re not a bank – we’re an exploration company. Our job is
to grow and add ounces to our asset,” Eagle Hill Chief Executive
Brad Kitchen told Reuters in an interview this week. “So, when
given the opportunity to raise that much cash, even in today’s
market, it was more important to raise the money and do the
drilling,”

For exploration companies such as Eagle Hill, the market
for equity financing has improved this year after being almost
slammed shut in the middle of 2011, when even proven producers
had difficulty raising money and share prices slid.

Timing is everything for companies that tend to burn through
cash quickly in a rush to prove out sufficient resources to make
them attractive acquisition targets for producers.

With its window of opportunity open, Eagle Hill felt it
could not hesitate, Kitchen said on the sidelines of PDAC, a
major mining industry conference in Toronto.

Eagle Hill means to sink its new cash into 45,000 meters of
drill holes at Windfall Lake, a property near Val d’Or, a city
in northern Quebec whose name means Valley of Gold in French.

DUNDEE CORP

The top buyer in Eagle Hill’s February financing was Dundee
Corp, a major investor in Canadian mining exploration.
It took a 19 percent stake in the company.

“For us, that was a huge win,” said Kitchen, adding that the
company is also talking to an aboriginal group in the community
surrounding the mine that wants to invest, as well as some
Quebec pension funds.

“From a corporate perspective, we wanted more institutional
investors; we wanted some named players.”

In November, Eagle Hill announced its first official
resource study on the property, showing a resource containing
700,000 ounces of gold at 7.6 grams per tonne.

Kitchen said last week the company drilled its first long
hole, over 1,100 meters deep, showing its gold resource extends
beyond a non-mineralized zone at around 400 meters.

In recent weeks, some large Canadian miners have expressed
interest in the property, which Eagle Hill acquired in 2009 from
Toronto-based explorer Noront Resources, which spent
about C$25 million on drilling on the property.

“We’re talking to some … very significant players in the
Canadian gold scene,” Kitchen told Reuters this week at PDAC, a
four-day industry conference in Toronto organized by the
Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada.

Hernan de Solminihac, mine minister of the world’s largest
copper producer, said he was confident China’s industrialization
would continue to drive demand for the metal, a conductor of
heat and electricity that’s not easily replaced with cheaper
materials.

“We believe that the fundamentals of the copper industry
will be maintained,” said De Solminihac in an interview at PDAC,
the sprawling Toronto mining industry convention organized by
the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada.

“In China in particular we are following demand very
closely, where there are a lot of new projects for buildings and
for electricity, and moving people from rural areas to urban
areas,” he said. “They have a lot of projects that will help
support copper buying.”

De Solminihac said Chile is expecting an average price of
around $3.80 a pound this year, and $3.90 next year. Prices are
expected to drop to $3 or lower by 2014.

On Tuesday, copper was trading at $3.75 a pound in New York,
pressured lower by a strong U.S. dollar and concerns that
slower economic growth in China will weaken demand.

China, the world’s second-largest economy, cut its economic
growth target on Monday to an eight-year low of 7.5 percent,
sending global equities and commodities lower.

Chile, already the world’s largest copper producer and
China’s key supplier, is seen producing some 7.5 million tonnes
of copper within eight years, up from about 5.2 million tonnes
in 2011.

As well as state-run Codelco, the world’s largest copper
producer, such publicly traded copper giants as BHP Billiton,
Xstrata and Anglo American operate in the South
American country.

(Editing by Frank McGurty)

The funds are earmarked for further development of B2Gold’s
two mines in the Central American country, CEO Clive Johnson
told Reuters in an interview at PDAC, the mining industry’s
largest annual convention.

Vancouver-based B2Gold was formed in 2007 by the former
management team of Bema Gold Corp, an international gold
producer that was acquired by Kinross Gold for C$3.5
billion ($3.52 billion).

The company, Nicaragua’s largest gold producer, has two
operating gold mines in the country: La Libertad, with about
90,000 ounces of production a year, and its 95 percent-owned
Limon site, which produced about 40,000 ounces in 2010.

Cash costs are low, Johnson said, at about $600 an ounce or
less, compared with spot gold prices near $1,700 an ounce.
Most producers spend above $1,000 an ounce as operating
costs rise across the board.

B2Gold is one of a handful of foreign miners in
Nicaragua, and is the only publicly traded gold producer
operating there.

Johnson and his team have a reputation for being the
first to test the waters in mining regions avoided by foreign
operators. He went to Chile in 1988, braving the regime of
Augusto Pinochet in a search for mineral wealth. In 1998, he set
up an operation in Russia.

One of the first stops Johnson made after getting to
Nicaragua in 2007 was to meet with President Daniel Ortega, the
former Marxist revolutionary who branded himself as a moderate
and sought ties with business groups during his most recent
presidential term.

What was meant to be a 20-minute meet-and-greet turned
into a two-hour discussion about how Johnson planned to run his
company. He said that session put B2Gold in good standing, a
status that the company still enjoys. “I made promises and I
have kept those promises,” he said.

SELF-FUNDED

B2Gold calls itself a hybrid company because it is both
exploration company and miner, whereas most companies fall
neatly into one category or the other.

That is what allows the company to be an aggressive explorer
even as it expands existing operations, relying mostly on cash
flow from mines and project finance, Johnson said on Monday on
the sidelines of the conference, organized by the Prospectors
and Developers Association of Canada.

La Libertad and Limon should produce $140 million in cash
from operations this year, Johnson said, compared with C$100
million in the bank at the end of 2011. He sees cash from
operations of some C$170 million next year and then $200 million
the year after that.

“So that lets us … do all this exploration work and we
don’t have to dilute our shareholders. We don’t have to rely on
the banks,” Johnson said after a presentation to investors at
the PDAC, a four-day mining industry convention in Toronto.

B2Gold also plans to bring on output from properties in
Colombia and Namibia in coming years, and targets production of
about 450,000 ounces of gold a year by around 2016.

Johnson said the company also has its eye out for
acquisitions, but that it will be selective.

“We’ve signed 150 confidentiality agreements in the past two
years, looking at projects virtually all over the world, and
we’ve done two deals, so we are very selective.”

The company agreed in October to buy Auryx Gold Corp
for about C$130 million in a cash and stock deal that
gave it 92 percent control of the Otjikoto gold project in the
southern African nation of Namibia.

“We’re going to grow through acquisitions of projects with
ounces that are accretive and we are doing grassroots
exploration and every other stage of exploration in many places
around the world.”

Mine and Energy Minister Jorge Merino said the government,
which has appointed a 3-person commission to review a favorable
environmental impact study, was looking at ways to improve the
project. Conga is set to produce up to 350,000 ounces of gold
per year and 120 million pounds of copper its first five years
of operation.

“The Peruvian state respects contracts that have been
signed,” Merino told Reuters during the Prospectors and
Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) conference, the world’s
largest mining industry gathering.

An environmental impact study gave Newmont the green light
for Conga in 2010. But authorities halted construction in
November after violent protests by groups who fear it would
pollute water sources. A government appointed panel is now
reviewing the original study.

“What we are doing here is an analysis of how we can improve
the environmental impact study, how we can improve on the issue
of water,” Merino said.

“It’s the ‘how’ it will be done and the ‘how’ it will be
improved,” he answered when asked whether there will eventually
be a Conga Mine.

The protests have forced the government of President Ollanta
Humala to walk a fine line between respecting community demands
and backing the pro-business line that helped get him elected.

Peru is the world’s No. 2 producer of copper, silver and
zinc and is Latin America’s top gold producer. Mining accounts
for 60 percent of exports, and a decade-long mining boom has
brought economic and political stability.

But the sector faces growing criticism for failing to bring
sufficient prosperity to communities, and critics say it
pollutes their environment and wastes their water supplies.

Newmont says the project would guarantee year-round water
supplies, in part by building reservoirs to replace lakes that
would be affected by the mining.

The Conga dispute is one of 200 environmental conflicts that
the Humala government is struggling to manage, and Merino
assured a business audience that Peru sees investment as key to
economic development.

“The Peruvian state wants to be a facilitator … it wants
to be facilitators for investors,” he said.

Mike White, chief executive at investment bank IBK Capital,
says due diligence is the key, and IBK offers a list of success
stories to prove his point.

“I always get very upset when people call investing in
junior exploration akin to buying a lottery ticket because that
couldn’t be further from the truth,” said White, whose
Toronto-based company is a major sponsor of the annual
Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada conference.

“You are buying into a management team, you’re buying into a
number of projects whose merit is based on the work that’s been
done in the past and on the work that a management team is
doing.”

Bankers expect aggressive deal-making at this year’s PDAC as
junior explorers seek to take advantage of new optimism in
equity markets after a near-drought in the second half of 2011.

A small player in the world of multibillion-dollar mine
finance, IBK is one of the more successful independent financing
firms in Toronto. Created by a group of investment bankers from
Merrill Lynch in 1989, it has helped raise early-stage
development capital for some of Canada’s largest mining
companies.

Top of the list of successes is Goldcorp Inc, now
Canada’s No. 2 gold miner, which grew from humble roots as a
closed-end fund to its current market cap of some C$40 billion.

A wall of plaques in IBK’s Toronto offices commemorates
other companies IBK has helped turn into full-blown miners,
including Western Goldfields, Capital Gold, US Gold and Detour
Gold.

The original investors in Detour Gold bought into the
company, then called Pelangio, in a 2000 private placement at 10
cents a share, meaning they would have made a 270-fold profit on
their investments at today’s stock price of about C$27 a share.

Shareholders who got in at the 2007 IPO price of C$3 a share
would be up nine-fold on their original investment.

“If you are dealing with a good management team, they’ll
stick with it, they’ll figure it out,” said White, who took over
IBK from his father in October 2010. At age 40, he is one of the
youngest CEOs among Bay Street’s mining industry bankers.

Among the teams IBK is betting on these days is the one at
RX Exploration, a Toronto venture exchange-listed
company that owns the Drumlummon Mine in Montana.

Once owned by the Rothschild family but abandoned by them
amid a legal dispute a century ago, the gold mine was mostly
forgotten until a group of miners started pulling the leases
back together in recent years.

“They came to us just after they had accumulated all the
claims,” said White, who also invests in the companies he raises
capital for.

RX plans to use Drumlummon to build a much larger mining
company, with production of 300,000 oz of gold a year by 2015.

“Will they achieve that? Well they are a great team to make
that happen,” said White. “Let’s give them time. I’ll give them
time. And I’ll buy when I think the stock is cheap, and maybe
I’ll sell a little bit when it runs.”

WISCO, a subsidiary of global steel giant Wuhan Iron & Steel
Corp, was among the few prospective partners with
deep enough pockets to consider the price tag on the project to
build what promises to be one of the world’s largest iron ore
mines.

“Logically, the only way that made any sense was to go to an
end-user as a partner, because they could absorb the slightly
higher capital and because by the time it comes out in the wash
they are getting their material at a huge discount,” Adriana
Resources Chief Executive Allen Palmiere said of the investment.

“It’s impossible to access capital markets for that kind of
funding, it just can’t be done,” said Palmiere, who approached
WISCO in 2009, when he was barely a month into the job.

Joint ventures like the one signed by Adriana Resources and
WISCO are becoming increasingly common in Canada, marrying
cash-strapped explorers and Asian partners that need bulk
commodities like iron ore to feed rapid industrialization. The
concept is set to be a theme at the Prospectors and Developers
Association of Canada (PDAC) convention in Toronto this week.

Among the nearly 30,000 delegates at this week’s
PDAC event are executives from exploration companies eager to
sign so-called take-off agreements, where they receive project
financing in exchange for equity stakes or promises of future
production.

Under the deal with Adriana, WISCO became the 60-percent
owner of the Lac Otelnuk project, which is due to start
producing some 50 million tonnes of iron ore pellets per year in
northern Quebec in 2016 or 2017.

WISCO, which has already committed C$120 million to the
project, will also own the right to 60 percent of production,
guaranteeing supply for its steel mills for some 50 years.

“You’ve seen a lot more of these kinds of partnerships as a
way for explorers to fund their business instead of relying on
the public markets,” said a investment banker at one of Canada’s
largest lenders.

“Where some have used public markets, many others are moving
to the strategic capital and to the trading houses of Japan,
with the Chinese investors and other money out of Asia.”

Both China, the most powerful force in the world economy
since the 2008-09 economic crisis, and India have helped sustain
commodity prices even as the weak U.S. housing market and
Europe’s sovereign debt crisis stymie regional growth.

Asian commodity giants have also become major project
financiers as turbulent stock markets made it tough to do equity
offerings. The deals are also gaining popularity as European
banks retreat from strategic funding deals, bankers say.

There are few statistics to quantify growing participation
by Asian powers in Canadian resources. But numerous individual
examples highlight the level of Asian interest.

Another example is Century Iron Mines,
Canada’s largest holder of iron ore land claims, which has a
joint venture agreement that gives WISCO access to 40 percent of
output from three projects in the Quebec/Labrador area and a 25
percent stake in Century.

New Millennium has partnered with Indian steel
giant Tata Steel to develop two projects in the same
region.

Palmiere said at least three other Canadian miners in the
iron ore-rich Labrador Trough in northern Quebec – home to about
a dozen other early stage exploration projects – are seeking
deals with Asian partners.

“I get a sense there’s more and more activity of
Chinese looking to Canada as sort of an acquisition point,” said
Michael Bourassa, a mining lawyer with Fasken Martineau DuMoulin
who represented Adriana on the WISCO deal.

“There is definitely an appetite out there from people
looking in Canada. They use us as sort of a stepping stone to
get to the assets, because a lot them are held by juniors and
intermediates here in Canada.”