Andean Resources Limited, has announced an agreement whereby Canada’s fastest growing gold producer, Goldcorp, will acquire Andean Resources for A$3.76 billion.

Under the arrangement, each common share of Andean will be exchanged for 0.14 common shares of Goldcorp or a cash payment of C$6.50.

Corrs Chambers Westgarth is acting as the Australian counsel to Andean on the acquisition, which will occur through a scheme of arrangement under Australian law.

Mallesons Stephen Jaques, meanwhile, is advising the Canadian gold miner.

The transaction will see Goldcorp acquire Andean’s principal asset, Cerro Negro gold project. Cerro Negro has over the past four years gone from being a small gold project to a world class epithermal district, that has the potential to triple its gold and silver resources over the next few years, Corrs said in a statement.

On Corrs’ side, the transaction is being led by partners James Rozsa and Andrew Lumsden, with senior associates Jaclyn Riley-Smith and lawyers Georgina Gill and Lynda Reddy.

Andean Resources is a dual listed (ASX/TSX) public company, focused on finding precious metal resources. Its principal asset is the 100 per cent owned Cerro Negro gold project located in Argentina.

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The Mallesons team, led by M&A partners Nigel Hunt, Stephen Minns, David Perks and tax partner Richard Snowden, worked closely with Goldcorp and its Canadian legal advisers, Cassels Brock & Blackwell and its financial advisors, CIBC, to finalise negotiations and documentation in both Canada and Australia in just four days.

"There was close co-operation between a number of Mallesons centres, including Perth, Sydney and Melbourne," said Hunt.

"Given the 12 hours time difference between Perth and Toronto, the deal really was moving 24 hours a day," said Perks.

Perks said that while Goldcorp is no stranger to major acquisitions, there were a number of Australian specific issues which needed to be addressed.

"Close teamwork and responsiveness between the legal team in Australia and Goldcorp's Canadian Counsel was needed to finalise the deal.”

The process from here will be to move toward the dispatch of the scheme booklet (subject to the necessary court and other approvals) to shareholders in anticipation of the meeting of Andean shareholders to approve the transaction, Mallesons said.