Ian McBride is a partner in the Corporate/Commercial, Corporate Finance & Securities, Mergers & Acquisitions, Energy and Mining practices. Over the years, he has gained extensive Canadian and international experience in a broad range of complex transactional matters, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and other business compbinations, capital markets and bank financings and corporate restructurings.

Representative Work

• Acted for Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group Holdings Co. Ltd., China's second largest copper cathode producer, and China Railway Construction Corporation Limited, one of the largest integrated construction enterprises in the world, in connection with their joint acquisition of Corriente Resources Inc. in a deal valued at $679 million.
• Acted for Barrick Gold on its sale to Silver Wheaton of 25% of the life-of-mine silver production from the Pascua-Lama project in Chile and Argentina and 100% of silver production from the Lagunas Norte, Pierina and Veladero mines in Peru and Argentina in exchange for a $625 million cash deposit and $3.90 cash per ounce of silver.
• Acted for BHP Billiton in connection with its acquisition of potash assets in Western Canada and associated joint venture agreements.
• Acted for China Minmetals and Jiangxi Copper on their successful takeover bid for Northern Peru Copper Corp.
• Acted for Jinchuan Group in connection with its takeover bid for Tyler Resources.
• Acted for Jinduicheng Molybdenum and Northwest Non-Ferrous International Investment in their successful acquisition of Yukon Zinc Corporation.
• Acted for Dynatec Corporation in connection with Sherritt International's $1.6 billion acquisition of Dynatec.
• Acted for Richmont Mines in connection with its successful acquisition of Patricia Mining.
• Acted for Barrick Gold in connection with its acquisition of Randgold Resources' Tanzanian mining properties.
• Acted for Barrick Gold in its $1.525 billion sale of the South Deep mine in South Africa to Gold Fields.
• Acted for Barrick Gold and Noranda Inc., as sponsors, in connection with the IFC financing of the Refimet smelter in Chile.
• Acted for Barrick Gold and its Peruvian subsidiary in connection with the $150 million shelf prospectus and subsequent bond issuance in the Peruvian capital markets and a capital lease program provided by Citibank Peru and Banco de Crédito, the proceeds of which were used to finance the Lagunas Norte greenfields gold project in Peru.
• Acted for Barrick Gold and its subsidiaries on the development and project financing of the Bulyanhulu gold project in Tanzania and the Veladero gold project in Argentina. The Veladero financing was chosen by Global Trade Report as one of the "Best Deals of 2004", by Project Finance magazine as "Latin America Mining Deal of the Year" and by PFI as "Americas Mining Deal of the Year".
• Acted for Avnel Gold in connection with its joint venture with IAMGOLD to develop the Kalana gold mine in Mali.
• Acted for Barrick Gold on its offtake, earn-in and joint venture agreements with Falconbridge (now Xstrata Nickel) relating to the Kabanga nickel-cobalt project in Tanzania.
• Acted for Agnico-Eagle Mines in connection with its option to Forum Uranium to explore uranium properties located in Nunavut and related private placement of Forum Uranium shares and warrants.

Ian has also advised companies such as China Minmetals, Barrick Gold, Richmont Mines, Agnico-Eagle Mines, Avnel Gold, Detour Gold and others on diverse natural resources-related matters such as offtake transactions, First Nations issues, forward commodity sale and hedging agreements, operating agreements and royalty arrangements.

As can be seen, Ian's practice has a significant international focus.  He has advised clients on business transactions and investments in England, Belgium, France, Australia, China, Cuba, Barbados, Chile, Argentina, Peru, Mexico, South Africa, Tanzania, Mali, Indonesia, the United States and elsewhere. Ian acted for Noranda, which subsequently merged with Falconbridge and is now Xstrata Nickel, in connection with its acquisition of the remaining 50% interest in the Refimet smelter in Antofagasta, Chile and also acted as lead counsel to the Inter-American Development Bank in connection with the sale of one of its investments in Latin America. He has advised clients on political risk issues in emerging market economies, including providing advice with respect to fiscal stability and foreign exchange rights under legal regimes in a number of countries. Ian has also advised on numerous political risk insurance programs provided by export credit and multilateral agencies.

Articles and Publications

Ian has delivered papers on numerous aspects of cross-border natural resources and financing transactions and investment. Papers he has recently delivered have dealt with issues as diverse as offtake agreements, Chinese investment in the natural resources sector and international investment approvals.

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