Very nice to see one of my long term golds doing so well today… looks like exciting times for AND Australia’s second largest by market cap gold company.

VANCOUVER, BC – Eldorado Gold Corporation (“Eldorado” the “Company” or “we”) today confirmed it has approached the Board of Directors of Andean Resources Limited (“Andean”) with a proposal to combine the two companies, thus creating the world’s fastest growing and lowest cost gold producer.
Andean is a dual listed company (TSX: AND) (ASX: AND) whose main asset is the Cerro Negro Gold Project (“Cerro Negro”) in the southern province of Santa Cruz in Argentina. Cerro Negro is an epithermal gold deposit at feasibility study stage that currently contains 2.1 million oz of gold and 20.6 million oz of silver in Probable Reserves.
The proposal put to the Andean Board was for a share exchange transaction at a fixed exchange ratio of 0.310 of an Eldorado common share for each Andean ordinary share, through a friendly transaction supported by a majority of the Andean Directors (the “Proposal”).

Eldorado believes that the Proposal is extremely compelling for all Andean shareholders and represents a fully valued offer for Andean. Based on the closing price of an Eldorado share on the Toronto Stock Exchange (“TSX”) on August 30th, 2010, the written Proposal, dated August 30th, 2010, followed an earlier initial approach to Andean on August 18th, 2010, and valued Andean at Cdn$6.36 per share, representing:

 A premium of 61.9% to the Andean 20 day volume weighted average price on the TSX to August 30th, 2010.
 A premium of 89.9% to the Andean recently completed equity financing, which was priced by the Board of Andean at Cdn$3.35 per share.

The Proposal would result in Andean shareholders owning approximately 24% of the combined company on a fully diluted basis, based on reported issued capital of each company as of August 30th, 2010.

You can see several posts re AND further down the page.

Dampier Gold has made a successful debut on the ASX listing at a 22 per cent premium to its 50 cent issue price.

Shares in the aspiring gold miner hit the boards at 61 cents this morning and were holding their price at 11.45am albeit on very low volumes.

Led by non-executive chairman Russell Skirrow, chief executive Julian Stephens and a host of experienced directors including geologist Phil Retter, Dampier is raised $20 million in its IPO.

The company bought the Plutonic greenstone belt from gold mining giant Barrick.

Barrick will keep its underground mine and processing facility and will process all Dampier’s ore.

The Pluonic belt is 60km long and 10km wide and has produced 4.7 million ounces of gold to date.
Dampier hopes to capitalise on the limited exploration of the area.

TAKEOVER target Lihir Gold says it is still possible another suitor will come in to trump Newcrest Mining’s $9.5 billion bid ahead of next month’s shareholders meeting.

Speaking in a teleconference about the company’s second quarter production, Lihir chief executive Graeme Hunt said there was no doubt other parties could come forward and bid more for the gold producer.

“It is a possibility, there is no question about that, but I am not going to speculate on the probability of it happening,” Mr Hunt said.

Read full article: http://wotnews.com.au/view/5340913/

July 19, 2010, Salt Lake City, UT — Andean Resources (ASX/TSX: AND) is pleased to announce
the highest-grade results to date from the ongoing exploration program at its wholly owned Cerro Negro Project in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. Highlights from the Mariana Central vein intercepts include:

Mariana Central – Bonanza grades and significant widths

MDD-1025: 8.5m of 46.1 g/t Au and 157 g/t Ag from 105.3m

MDD-1028: 8.65m of 33.3 g/t Au and 460 g/t Ag from 149.5m and 10.1m of 143.0 g/t Au and 1219 g/t Ag from 188.4m

MDD-1049: 2.6m of 54.6 g/t Au and 42 g/t Ag from 161.2m and 10.6m of 44.5 g/t Au and 97 g/t Ag from 170.3m

MDD-1050: 9.0m of 127.1 g/t Au and 272 g/t Ag from 168.0m

MDD-1051: 7.0m of 52.0 g/t Au and 240 g/t Ag from 119.0m

MDD-1054: 3.5m of 17.7 g/t Au and 51 g/t Ag from 102.0m

MDD-1056: 2.0m of 36.0 g/t Au and 1172 g/t Ag from 178 and 14.5m of 55.3 g/t Au and 618 g/t Ag from 181.5

MDD-1057: 15.3m of 21.1 g/t Au and 72 g/t Ag from 165.4m

MDD-1058: 9.2m of 34.9 g/t Au and 414 g/t Ag from 122.1m

William Wulftange, Andean’s Vice President of Exploration stated, “The results received this year from the Mariana Central vein are truly spectacular and firmly establish Cerro Negro as the new benchmark of low sulfidation epithermal gold deposits.”

July 7, 2010, Perth Australia
Andean Announces Positive Feasibility Study Results for its Cerro Negro Gold Project
Andean Resources (ASX/TSX: AND) is pleased to announce the positive Feasibility Study (“FS”) results of its 100% owned Cerro Negro high-grade gold and silver project in Santa Cruz, Argentina. The FS was completed based on the previously released gold and silver mineral resource estimates at the Eureka West and Bajo Negro deposits, along with the new resource for the Vein Zone deposit. The FS was compiled by Ausenco Ltd., with the participation and contribution from industry consultants. The study defines an operation based on sequential mining of the three deposits by underground and open pit mining, along with milling and refining of the ore on site. The mine will operate at a production rate of 1,850 tonnes per day, producing an average of 200,000 ounces (“oz”) of gold over a 10 year mine life, at an average cash cost of about $168/oz (based on silver by-product credits of $14/oz).

Highlights of the Feasibility Study include:
• For the first five years, Cerro Negro would produce up to a rate of 285,000 oz of gold per year at an average cash cost of $60/oz (inclusive of silver by-product credits), making Cerro Negro one of the lowest-cost undeveloped gold projects in the world
• A significant internal rate of return using $850/oz gold (“Au”) and $14/oz silver (“Ag”) on an initial capital investment of $275 million
• Probable reserves of 2.1 million oz of gold and 20.6 million oz of silver based on mining the indicated resources only at Eureka West, Bajo Negro and Vein Zone
• Inferred resources at Eureka West, Bajo Negro and Vein Zone have been excluded from the FS. In addition, the newly discovered veins at San Marcos, Mariana Norte and Mariana Central have also been excluded. The mineralization excluded from the FS will be included in subsequent plans
• Mine life of 10 years with direct employment of 533 employees
• A sustainable development fund to invest 1% of after-tax profits into the local communities
• Overall metallurgical recoveries have improved to 95% for gold and 86% of silver
• International Cyanide Management Code compliant design
• Significant upside remains:
o Converting the significant inferred gold resources to indicated status with infill and step-out drilling, thereby allowing these resources to be included in a future mine plan
o Further defining the size and potential of the latest discoveries at the San Marcos, Mariana Norte and Mariana Central deposits with the intent to incorporate these into future mine plans
o The Eureka West deposit remains open to the west and at depth, with exploration to resume once the current underground development is sufficiently advanced
o The Bajo Negro deposit remains open along strike and at depth, with exploration to re-commence later this year
o Further exploration potential at other Cerro Negro deposits

Get the full report

As the price of gold soars ever higher the people over at Market Club have made a new video spotlighting 4 different ways to profit from gold.

4 different ways to profit from gold vido

To view a complete list of ASX gold company’s visit this link