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Gold Fields Ltd, majority owner of the Tarkwa and Damang mines in Ghana, has agreed to buy basalt stone crusher the remaining shares from Iamgold Corp for US$667 million to boost output and reserves.

It’s a “relatively low-risk transaction that should increase the company’s international production and lower its overall cost of producing gold,” Gold Fields said today in a statement. The company already operates the mines and has a 71.1% stake, while Toronto-based Iamgold owns 18.9%.

Gold Fields, the world’s fourth-largest producer of the metal, is expanding as gold prices soar. Gold rose to a record US$1,479/oz in London today as concern that inflation is quickening and the dollar weakening boosts demand for the metal as an alternative investment.

The Johannesburg-based company is also increasing its stake in its Peruvian Gold Fields La Cima SAA unit, with a bid for the 8% it doesn’t own closing April 20, chief calcite crusher executive Nick Holland said yesterday.

Gold Fields fell 0.9% to R121.56/share as of 2:22 pm in Johannesburg trading. Iamgold rose 2% to C$21.10 in Toronto yesterday, after Holland said Gold Fields was interested in buying the Ghanaian mine interests.

Iamgold too is seeking majority stakes in assets, and said in February it will be able to use the proceeds from selling minority holdings to achieve that goal.

The Ghana deal will increase Gold Fields’ West African production by about 181,000oz/y and expand gold resources by 3.3Moz, the company said. The country’s government owns 10% of each of the mines, as required under Ghanaian law.

Fund managers believe that the gold price being used in many feasibility studies is too high. A recent poll of European professional investors by Mining Journal found that a statistically-significant number believe mine-evaluation studies should use historical gold prices.

Over 83% of the respondees to the survey were conservative in terms of the price that should be used in granite crusher analysis. One-third of these replies suggested the use of a one-year price average (US$1,293/oz to end-March) but two-thirds opted for a five-year average (only US$915/oz).