The teacher faced off against his former students when Kinross Gold chief executive officer Tye Burt sat down to negotiate a $1.2-billion all-stock takeover of Aurelian Resources.

Mr. Burt is a reformed investment banker, who ran the mining group at BMO Nesbitt Burns before jumping into the industry he covered. He's been at the helm of Kinross since 2005.

Over the past few weeks, Mr. Burt squared off with the BMO Nesbitt Burns bankers he once led, as they teamed up with colleagues from Dundee Securities to advise Aurelian on this deal. The transaction gives Kinross, which has a number of mature mines, access to undeveloped plays in South America. The offer comes at a 63-per-cent premium to the target's share price over the past 20 days.

There's an interesting twist to the takeover, with Kinross committing $71-million to buy Aurelian shares in a private placement that's not conditional on the deal closing. That financing will fund development of a high-quality property in Ecuador.

There are rumblings that other gold miners, such as Mr. Burt's former employer Barrick Gold, could make things interesting for Kinross by taking a run at Aurelian.

Kinross looked to Scotia Capital as its lead adviser, along with Rothschild and CIBC World Markets. On the legal side, Kinross worked with Osler Hoskin & Harcourt, while Aurelian's legal counsel came from Cassels Brock & Blackwell. A special committee of Aurelian's board took advice from Stikeman Elliott.