Entree - PacMag Business Combination Doubles Copper Resources
November 29 2009 - 4:40PM
PR Newswire (US)
VANCOUVER, Nov. 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Entree Gold Inc.
(TSX:ETG; NYSE Amex:EGI; Frankfurt:EKA - "Entree" or the "Company")
announces that it has entered into a definitive agreement with
PacMag Metals Limited (ASX:PMH - "PacMag") to implement Australian
Schemes of Arrangement to acquire all of the issued shares and
options of PacMag. PacMag has a 100% interest in the Ann Mason
Project located near Yerington, Nevada, which hosts the Ann Mason
copper-molybdenum porphyry deposit. This deposit has a Joint Ore
Reserves Committee ("JORC") compliant inferred resource of 810
million tonnes grading 0.40% copper and 0.004% molybdenum at a
0.30% copper cut-off grade, estimated to contain more than 7.1
billion pounds copper. The project is contiguous with the
HoneyBadger and Bronco Creek properties recently optioned by Entree
(see news releases from July 23 and September 25, 2009). PacMag
owns several other assets in the US and Australia. The transaction
values PacMag at approximately CAD$47 million (AUD$49 million)(1).
Consideration will be payable with a combination of Entree shares
and cash. Each PacMag shareholder will receive approximately 0.102
Entree shares and CAD$0.041 (AUD$0.043) cash for each PacMag share.
In addition, Entree will acquire all of the outstanding PacMag
options for aggregate consideration of approximately 294,000 shares
and CAD$343,500. The aggregate consideration payable by Entree for
all of the PacMag shares and options will be approximately 15
million Entree shares and CAD$6,343,500. The Directors of PacMag
have informed Entree that, in the absence of a superior proposal
and subject to an independent expert concluding that the Scheme is
in the best interests of PacMag shareholders, they will unanimously
recommend that PacMag shareholders vote in favour of the proposed
Scheme and all directors intend to vote their shareholdings
(including option holdings) in favour of the Scheme. Greg Crowe,
Entree's President & CEO, stated, "The business combination
with PacMag complements our current copper-gold resources in
Mongolia, consolidates our exploration and development position in
the highly prospective, under-explored Yerington Camp in Nevada,
and brings under the Entree umbrella a sizeable copper and
molybdenum inventory. Entree is well on its way to holding a stable
of high quality, advanced stage, large-tonnage
copper-gold-molybdenum assets." Highlights of the Transaction
Entree management believes the combination of the two companies is
advantageous to shareholders for numerous reasons: - Entree
shareholders gain access to an exciting project portfolio,
including the Ann Mason copper-molybdenum porphyry deposit directly
adjacent to existing properties which Entree has optioned in
Nevada; - The Ann Mason deposit adds a significant
copper-molybdenum resource to the Company's asset base, more than
doubling existing resource inventory; - The Ann Mason property
hosts other significant copper prospects, including the Blue Hills,
Shamrock and Minnesota projects; - The transaction combines high
quality base metal and gold assets in three mining friendly
jurisdictions. Entree management also believes the combination of
the two companies is beneficial to PacMag shareholders: - It gives
PacMag shareholders exposure to a liquid, under-leveraged TSX and
NYSE-Amex listed company with a strong shareholder base in the US,
Canada and Europe; - It allows PacMag shareholders to participate
in the development of the Oyu Tolgoi Project in Mongolia; -
Consolidation of the property holdings in the Yerington Camp allows
for a more efficient approach to ongoing exploration and
development of this highly prospective porphyry copper district; -
PacMag shareholders will be exposed to a company with an
experienced Board of Directors and management team, strong senior
mining partners in Rio Tinto and Ivanhoe Mines, a strong balance
sheet and a proven record of raising capital. The PacMag
combination is complementary to Entree's existing holdings in
Mongolia. Entree is the only junior company with a stake in the
emerging Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold camp in southern Mongolia, now
recognized as the most significant new copper discovery worldwide
in the last twenty years. The recent signing of an Investment
Agreement between the Mongolian Government and the Rio Tinto -
Ivanhoe Mines partners will facilitate accelerated responsible
development of this major, long-life resource. Scheme
Implementation Agreement Entree and PacMag have entered into a
scheme implementation agreement ("SIA") to implement the proposed
acquisition by Entree of PacMag. Under the SIA, PacMag has agreed
to propose an Australian scheme of arrangement with its
shareholders ("Share Scheme") under which Entree will provide
PacMag shareholders one Entree share and CAD$0.0415 cash for each
9.828 PacMag shares held on the record date. This values PacMag at
approximately AUD$49 million, and equates to AUD$0.33 per PacMag
share(1). In addition PacMag has agreed to propose an Australian
scheme of arrangement with optionholders ("Scheme Optionholders"),
other than optionholders who were granted options under PacMag's
Employee Share Option Plan, ("Option Scheme") under which Entree
will provide Scheme Optionholders 0.0107 to 0.0481 Entree shares
and CAD$0.0125 to $0.0562 cash for each PacMag option (according to
their class) held on the record date. Entree will also offer to
cancel all options issued under PacMag's Employee Share Option Plan
in consideration for 0.0367 Entree share and CAD$0.0429 cash for
each PacMag option held on the record date. The Share Scheme and
Option Scheme are conditional on the cancellation or exercise of
all options issued under PacMag's Employee Share Option Plan. The
SIA contains a number of customary conditions, including an
independent expert's report concluding that the Share Scheme is in
the best interest of PacMag shareholders and that the Option Scheme
is in the best interests of Scheme Optionholders, receipt of
required approval from regulators and Australian court approvals,
as well as approval by PacMag shareholders of the Share Scheme and
Scheme Optionholders of the Option Scheme. The SIA contains
customary terms typical for a transaction of this nature including
no shop and no talk exclusivity provisions, a break fee of
AUD$350,000 payable in certain circumstances (although not linked
to the outcome of the PacMag shareholder or optionholder vote in
relation to the Share Scheme or Option Scheme). Advisors and
Counsel for the Transaction Entree's financial advisor for this
transaction is TD Securities Inc., its Australian legal counsel is
Blakiston & Crabb and its Canadian legal counsel is Fasken
Martineau DuMoulin LLP. About Entree Gold Inc. Entree Gold Inc. is
a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on the worldwide
exploration and development of gold and copper prospects. Entree's
expertise is in exploring for deep and/or concealed ore deposits
and with a treasury currently in excess of C$40 million, is well
funded for future activities. Ivanhoe Mines and Rio Tinto are major
shareholders of Entree, holding approximately 15% and 16% of issued
and outstanding shares respectively. Entree's flagship property is
in Mongolia, where it holds two mining licences and one exploration
licence comprising the 179,590 hectare Lookout Hill property that
completely surrounds the 8,500-hectare Oyu Tolgoi project of
Ivanhoe Mines, and hosts the Hugo North Extension of the Hugo
Dummett copper-gold deposit and the Heruga copper-gold-molybdenum
deposit. The Lookout Hill property is subject to a joint venture
with Ivanhoe Mines Mongolia Inc (IMMI) whereby following
expenditure of US$35 million by IMMI, Entree now retains a 20% to
30% carried interest through to production, with Entree's share of
development costs to be repaid from future production cash flow.
The Hugo North Extension deposit hosts a 43-101 compliant Indicated
Resource of 117 million tonnes grading 1.8% copper and 0.61 g/t
gold, estimated to contain 4.6 billion pounds of copper and 2.3
million ounces of gold and an Inferred Resource of 95.5 million
tonnes grading 1.15% copper and 0.31 g/t gold, estimated to contain
2.4 billion pounds copper and 950,000 ounces of gold. Entree
retains a 20% carried interest in these resources. The Heruga
deposit contains an Inferred Resource of 760 million tonnes grading
0.48% copper, 0.55 g/t gold and 142 ppm molybdenum, estimated to
contain 8 billion pounds of copper and 13.4 million ounces of gold.
Entree also retains a 20% carried interest in this resource. Both
resources were calculated using a 0.6 % copper equivalent cut-off.
The copper equivalent grades were estimated using metal prices of
US$1.35 per pound copper, US$650 per ounce gold and US$10 per pound
molybdenum. All resources at Hugo North Extension and Heruga were
calculated using a 0.6% copper-equivalent cut-off. Entree continues
to explore its large landholdings in Mongolia, including the coal
discovery Nomkhon Bohr, and is also evaluating the Huaixi copper
project in Zhejiang Province in China. In North America, Entree is
exploring for porphyry-related copper systems in Arizona, New
Mexico, Nevada and British Columbia. Entree's Nevada property is
contiguous with the western boundary of PacMag's Ann Mason copper
project and increases substantially the area of prospective tenure
within that district. Click here for Entree's Yerington Projects
Map: http://files.newswire.ca/838/entreepacmag.pdf Qualified Person
Robert Cann, P.Geo., Entree's Vice-President, Exploration, and
Lindsay Bottomer, P. Geo., FAIMM, both Qualified Persons as defined
by National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101"), supervised the
preparation of the technical information in this release relating
to the Entree properties. About PacMag Metals Limited PacMag is an
Australian-based exploration company focused on its advanced
copper-molybdenum-gold assets at Ann Mason in Nevada, as well as
its advanced Sentinel uranium-germanium-molybdenum project located
in North Dakota. The wholly owned Ann Mason copper deposit contains
a JORC-compliant inferred mineral resource of 810 million tonnes at
0.4% copper, 0.004% molybdenum (7.1 billion pounds of contained
copper metal). PacMag has made new discoveries of high-grade copper
sulphide targets (Shamrock prospect and Ann Mason "5000" zone) and
a new porphyry copper deposit plus near surface copper-oxide
targets (Blue Hills). At Shamrock, 5 kilometres south east of Ann
Mason, recent drilling by PacMag from a first pass 12 hole RC
drilling program returned strong copper intersections including
33.6 metres at 1.72% copper from a depth of 15.2 metres, whilst at
Blue Hills 2 kilometres west of Ann Mason drill intersections
include; 73.2 metres at 0.57% copper equivalent, 100.6 metres at
0.41% copper equivalent and 526 metres at 0.3% copper equivalent.
At the Sentinel uranium project in North Dakota, resource
definition drill testing of a small portion of the total
prospective project area, has confirmed continuity, grade and
positive metallurgical characteristics of the uranium, molybdenum
and germanium mineralisation hosted within regionally continuous
lignite seams. Competent Persons Statement The information in this
Release that relates to PacMag Exploration Results, Minerals
Resources or Ore Reserves, as those terms are as defined in the
2004 Edition of the "Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration
Results, Resources and Ore Reserves", is based on information
compiled by Mr Michael Clifford, who is a full time employee of the
Company and a Member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists.
Mr Michael Clifford has sufficient experience which is relevant to
the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration
and to the activity which they are undertaking to qualify as a
Competent Person as defined in the 2004 Edition of the
"Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Resources
and Ore Reserve". Mr Michael Clifford consents to the inclusion in
this Release of the matters based on his information in the form
and context in which it appears. This News Release contains
forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are
statements which relate to future events. In some cases, you can
identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "may",
"should", "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes",
"estimates", "predicts", "potential" or "continue" or the negative
of these terms or other comparable terminology. Such statements
include those relating to the successful completion of the
transaction and implementation of the Schemes of Arrangement. These
statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown
risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our or our
industry's actual results, levels of activity, performance or
achievements to be materially different from any future results,
levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or
implied by these forward-looking statements. While these
forward-looking statements, and any assumptions upon which they are
based, are made in good faith and reflect our current judgment
regarding the direction of our business, actual results will almost
always vary, sometimes materially, from any estimates, predictions,
projections, assumptions or other future performance suggested
herein. Except as required by applicable law, including the
securities laws of the United States, the Company does not intend
to update any of the forward-looking statements to conform these
statements to actual results. Readers are referred to the sections
entitled "Risk Factors" in the Company's periodic filings with the
British Columbia Securities Commission, which can be viewed at
http://www.sedar.com/, and with the United States Securities and
Exchange Commission, which can be viewed at http://www.sec.gov/.
(1) Based on the 20 day VWAP of Entree shares on the TSX to 27
November 2009 of C$2.724 and the Australian dollar / Canadian
dollar exchange rate of 0.9656 at close on 27 November 2009.
DATASOURCE: Entrée Gold Inc. CONTACT: Monica Hamm, Manager,
Investor Relations, Entree Gold Inc., Tel: (604) 687-4777, Toll
Free: 866-368-7330, E-mail: ; Peter Oates, Corporate
Communications, Entree Gold Inc., Tel: (604) 687-4777, Toll Free:
866-368-7330, E-mail:
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