Business News

Trading in shares of Viterra Inc. have been stopped pending an announcement.

Last week the Regina-based grain handler reported it has had several expressions of interest from potential buyers. Names of possible bidders include Swiss commodities dealer Glencore PLC and U.S. agribusiness dealer Cargill.

The bidding war is on for Hathor Exploration, a Vancouver based company, currently focused on northern Saskatchewan.

Saskatoon based Cameco sweetened their initial takeover offer by 20 per cent on Monday. Trumping the offer made by mining giant Rio Tinto.

“We’ve increased our offer for Hathor and our current offer is eight point four per cent above what Rio Tinto has offered for the company,” said Gord Struthers on behalf of Cameco.

Rio Tinto Group, the world’s third largest mining company, is making a play to get into the uranium industry in Saskatchewan.

This morning the company announced an offer of $578 million for the Saskatchewan-based Hathor Exploration, an offer that works out to $4.15 per share.

This friendly bid follows a hostile $520 million takeover bid from Cameco, by increasing Cameco’s $3.75 per share offer by 11 per cent.

Hudson's Bay Company confirmed the final list of Zellers locations to be assumed by Target and Prince Albert is not on it.

While 189 Zellers stores are set to be leased by the American company, Prince Albert’s store will remain unchanged.

As part of the agreement with Zellers, Target purchased the right to up to 220 Zellers leases for $1.825 billion.

The announcement identifies an additional 84 Zellers locations to be assumed by Target in addition to the 105 stores announced in May 2011.

Saskatoon uranium corporation Cameco made a bid to buy junior mining company Hathor Exploration Ltd. for $520 million.

Cameo and Hathor couldn't agree on the vaule of the company, so Cameo has taken the offer to the Hathor shareholders in a takeover bid.

The offer will be open for acceptance to Hathor's shareholders for at least 60 days following the offer's commencement.

Hathor has projects in the Athabasca Basin in Northern Saskatchewan.

Diamond prices have been climbing, and that means better prices for the rough diamonds that could

be coming out of the proposed Shore Gold diamond project.

Since February, diamond prices have increased and the company is updating its valuations to better reflect those world-wide changes.

According to the company, the increases means some of the large stones the company has already pulled out of the ground as part of their feasibility study have increased between 31 and 46 per cent in value.

Prince Albert has lost a children’s store.

The Gateway Mall location of Please Mum is one of many that closed across the country this week. The company is only keeping 21 locations open.

“As a result of significant shifts in the retail landscape, we’ve had to make tough decisions about the future of our company,” said Kathryn Adrian, Please Mum founder and CEO, in a press release.

Construction on Saskatchewan's first diamond mine could begin next year.

The project going forward still hinges on final government approval, but the project east of Prince Albert may be too good to refuse.

Shore Gold is now hearing that production levels will be higher than original forecasts.

Saskatchewan may have the upper hand in the mining industry as it continues to increase in demand.

Industry expert, Martha Roberts, said many jobs will be opening up soon.

"People in the mining industry retire younger. Along with growth in demand for needs for commodities around the world, this perfect storm brews, and we put it all together and the industry looks at hiring 100,000 workers nationally in the next 10 years," said Roberts.

The Blockbuster Video store in Prince Albert has been saved from the chopping block.

Across Canada, 146 other Blockbuster stores will close in the weeks ahead.

Three weeks ago, Blockbuster Canada was pushed into receivership.

A source tells paNOW that the Blockbuster store in Prince Albert is among the higher performing stores in Canada. The only the store in the district scheduled to close is in Saskatoon.

nmaxwell@panow.com

BHP Billiton has announced that it's closing its Vancouver office and moving those operations to Saskatoon, another example of the good news in Saskatchewan's economy.

The Canadian dollar reached an almost three-year high Thursday before closing unchanged.