TORONTO, Dec. 22 /CNW/ - YAMANA GOLD INC. (TSX: YRI; NYSE: AUY; LSE: YAU) announced today improvement in its credit facility and a significant increase in its credit availability. The Company has increased its revolving credit facility capacity to US$680 million from US$500 million. The credit facility was jointly arranged by Scotia Capital and RBS Securities Inc. and is being provided by a syndicate of international banks.

The Company also announced the closing of a US$270 million senior debt securities offering. The private term debt offering was jointly arranged by Bank of America Merrill Lynch and RBS Securities Inc. The proceeds will be used to repay the Company's existing term loan and reduce outstanding amounts under its revolving line of credit. The offering consists of unsecured fixed coupon notes with a weighted average maturity of approximately 9 years and coupon of 6.75%.

The Company has in excess of US$500 million of available cash and immediate and undrawn credit available for general corporate purposes. The Company's balance of drawn credit remains unchanged by these transactions.

"The new credit facility provides Yamana with additional funding and flexibility to execute on its next growth phase and reduces overall debt exposure," commented Charles Main, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Yamana. "The fixing of the interest rate on the notes and extending out of our maturities, while maintaining our conservative leverage, are additional benefits of these transactions."

About Yamana

Yamana is a Canadian-based gold producer with significant gold production, gold development stage properties, exploration properties, and land positions in Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Mexico. The Company plans to continue to build on this base through existing operating mine expansions and throughput increases, the advancement of its exploration properties and by targeting other gold consolidation opportunities in the Americas.