Billionaire Carlos Slim buys Ocampo Gold, Silver mine from AuRico for $750 mn

MEXICO CITY(Scrap Monster): The world's richest man Carlos Slim’s Minera Frisco SAB buys Ocampo gold and silver mine mine in Mexico from Canadian miner AuRico Gold Inc. for $750 million.

The Ocampo mine, the adjacent exploration projects and an equal stake in the Orion project has been sold to Minera Frisco S A B de C V of Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim.

Ocampo gold and silver mine and Venus and Los Jarros projects in northern Chihuahua state and a 50 percent stake in the Orion project in Nayarit state, on Mexico’s Pacific coast are the properties included in the deal. The transaction is expected to close in December.

The 72 year old Mexican billionaire, Carlos Slim has a net worth of $69 billion which is acquired  from the telecom business. The world’s richest person is betting on precious metals to show resilience as the global economy struggles to grow, says analysts.

Toronto based gold producer AuRico Gold has a diversified portfolio of high quality mines and projects in North America that have significant production growth and exploration potential. The company will focus on oducing Young-Davidson gold mine in northern Ontario and the El Chanate mine in Sonora State, which are their core operations.

With a current market capitalisation of approximately $10.7 billion, Minera Frisco is now a leading Mexican mining company that was spun out of Grupo Carso S.A. de C.V. in 2010 and is listed on the Mexican Stock Exchange.