THUNDER BAY, ON, Feb. 1, 2021 /CNW/ - Premier Gold Mines
Limited ("Premier") (TSX: PG) (OTCPK: PIRGF) is
pleased to announce the anticipated management team for i-80 Gold
Corp, proposed to be spun-out to Premier shareholders as part of
the acquisition of Premier by Equinox Gold.
With the head office located in Reno
Nevada, the key members of i-80 will include; Ewan Downie, Chief Executive Officer and
Director, Ron Clayton, Chairman of
the Board, Matthew Gili, President
& Chief Operating Officer, Matthew
Gollat, Executive Vice-President Business & Corporate
Development, Ryan Snow, Chief
Financial Officer and Brent Kristof,
Executive Vice-President Projects & Evaluations.
Ewan Downie is an
accomplished company builder and entrepreneur with more 25 years
experience in the mining sector. Mr. Downie served as founder,
President & CEO of Premier and prior to this, founder President
& CEO of Wolfden Resources Inc. Both companies enjoyed
significant value appreciation following inception resulting in
both being acquired with spinout vehicles to the benefit of
shareholders. In his extensive career Mr. Downie has participated
in several gold and base metal discoveries and has been awarded
accolades to reflect this success including the 2003 recipient of
the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, Bill Dennis Prospector of The Year and
several Exploration, and Development acknowledgements from the
Northwestern Ontario Prospectors Association.
Ron Clayton is a
highly experienced mining executive with over 40 years in the
business. He has successfully guided companies through the mine
life cycle, including advanced-stage exploration, development,
construction, and mining. Mr. Clayton is currently the President
and CEO of 1911 Gold Corporation, an exploration and development
company. He also acted as the President, Chief Executive
Officer and Director of Tahoe Resources Inc. until June of 2018
where, as member of Tahoe's founding executive team, Ron led the
construction of the Escobal mine as the Company's first Chief
Operating Officer. Prior to that, he was Senior Vice President,
Operations, and the General Manager of several underground mines
for Hecla Mining Company, and served as Vice President, Operations
with Stillwater Mining Company. In addition, Mr. Clayton earned his
Bachelor of Science Degree in Mining Engineering from the
Colorado School of Mines and is a
graduate of the Tuck School of Business Executive Program at
Dartmouth.
Matthew Gili is a
Professional Mining Engineer with experience spanning Chief
Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Technical Officer
and General Manager roles. His deep technical experience included
previously being Executive General Manager -Cortez District, leading one of Barrick's top
mining operations in Nevada,
following which Matt was promoted to Chief Technical Officer
for Barrick Gold Corporation. Additional operational experience
included roles with Rio Tinto as the Managing Director of the
Palabora Mining Company in South
Africa and Chief Operating Officer of Oyu Tolgoi in
Mongolia. Most recently as the
Chief Executive Officer of Nevada Copper Corporation, Mr. Gili
leveraged his broad experience in leading a publicly listed mining
corporation. Passionate about Safety & Environmental
Stewardship Mr. Gili was previously Chairman of the Palabora
Foundation, Chairman of Mongolian Safety Association (MISA), and is
currently on the Management Advisory Board of the University of Nevada – Mackay School of Earth Sciences and
Engineering.
Matthew Gollat is an
accomplished executive with more than 12 years public company
experience in many aspects of the mine development cycle. Mr.
Gollat currently holds the position of Vice-President Business
Development at Premier Gold Mines limited and participated in
multiple corporate and strategic development projects including the
friendly acquisition of Premier Gold Mines, the spin out of i-80
Gold Corp, and the earlier creation of Premier Royalty Corp. Mr.
Gollat holds an Honours Bachelor of Commerce degree from
Lakehead University and completed the
Certificate of Mining Studies Program through the University of British Columbia. He currently serves
as an independent director for Nomad Royalty Company Ltd.
Ryan Snow is a mining
finance professional with over 15 years of experience in financial
management and reporting in both Canada and the
United States (IFRS and US GAAP), internal controls,
M&A, risk management and taxation. Prior to joining i-80 Gold
Mr. Snow served most recently as Vice-President of Finance for
Nevada Copper, where he helped to
secure project financing and restructure debt during the
construction and production ramp up of the Pumpkin Hollow mine. Mr.
Snow was the Vice-President, Finance and Controller for Tahoe
Resources during which time he oversaw the financial aspects of the
Sarbanes-Oxley implementation, two business acquisitions, and
progressed the Escobal mine in Guatemala and the Shahuindo Mine in
Peru through construction to
commercial production. He began his professional career at Hecla
Mining Company and holds a B.B.A. in Accounting (with distinction)
from Gonzaga University.
Brent Kristof is a
Professional Engineer with 40 years of leadership and team-building
successes in technical, operations, maintenance, and business
improvement in underground and surface mines and projects in
Canada, the United States, Australia, Papua New
Guinea, and Mexico. Brent
is currently the Senior Vice-President, Operations for Premier,
responsible for operations and project development in Mexico and Nevada. Prior to i-80 and
Premier, Brent was the Chief Operating Officer for Klondex Mines,
part of the executive team that created and grew the junior gold
producer. He has significant experience in Nevada, including 5 years as General Manager
for Barrick at the Turquoise Ridge Mine located immediately north
of the i-80's Getchell Project and 8 years as a General Manager for
Newmont at the Midas and Deep Post Mines as well as the Holloway
and Golden Giant Mines in Ontario.
While in Canada, Brent represented
Newmont on the Ontario Mining Association and while with Noranda he
was Co-Chair of the Minister's National Advisory Council to CANMET
(the Canada Centre for Mineral & Energy Technology). Brent
earned his Bachelor of Science Degree in Geological Engineering
from the University of Manitoba and is
a graduate of the University of Toronto
Executive Programs in Management.
"It has been our goal to launch i-80 with an industry-best
Management Team and the core group we have been able to attract
achieves this first priority target", commented Ewan Downie, President and Chief Executive
Officer of Premier. "This team brings the proven track record in
mine development and operations, including extensive experience
leading major gold mining complexes in Nevada, including Cortez and Turquoise Ridge.
The combined team brings substantial success in corporate growth
having built multiple companies from early exploration concept to
full mine production. I look forward to working with this
group as we quickly accelerate the growth of i-80's advanced-stage
asset portfolio and build Nevada's premier growth company".
The board of directors planned for i-80 include current Premier
board members Ewan Downie,
John Seaman, John Begeman and Eva
Bellissimo, and new members Ron
Clayton, Greg Smith and
Arthur Einav.
About Premier & i-80
Premier is a gold producer and respected exploration and
development company with a high-quality portfolio of precious
metals projects in proven, accessible and safe mining jurisdictions
in Canada, the United States and Mexico. On December 16,
2020, Equinox Gold Corp. (TSX: EQX, NYSE American: EQX) and
Premier Gold Mines Limited (TSX: PG, OTCPK: PIRGF) announced that
the companies have entered into a definitive agreement whereby
Equinox Gold will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Premier.
Concurrently, Premier will spin-out to its shareholders shares of a
newly created US-focused gold production and development company to
be called i-80 Gold Corp.
Premier remains focused on creating i-80 as a Nevada-focused
mining company with an organic pipeline of assets to achieve
mid-tier gold producer status. In addition to its producing mine,
El Nino at South Arturo, Premier is beginning to plan for future
production growth through the potential addition of the Phases 1
& 3 open pits at South Arturo, advancing the Pinson underground
and open pit opportunities at the Getchell Project (following
completion of the acquisition), and completing permitting and the
underground development plan for the 100%-owned McCoy-Cove
Property.
Certain statements in this release constitute "forward-looking
statements" or "forward-looking information" within the meaning of
applicable securities laws. Such statements and information involve
known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may
cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the
company, its projects, or industry results, to be materially
different from any future results, performance or achievements
expressed or implied by such forward–looking statements or
information. Such statements can be identified by the use of words
such as "may", "would", "could", "will", "intend", "expect",
"believe", "plan", "anticipate", "estimate", "scheduled",
"forecast", "predict" and other similar terminology, or state that
certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might"
or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. These statements reflect
the Company's current expectations regarding future events,
performance and results and speak only as of the date of this
release.
Forward-looking statements and information involve significant
risks and uncertainties, should not be read as guarantees of future
performance or results and will not necessarily be accurate
indicators of whether or not such results will be achieved. A
number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially
from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements or
information, including, but not limited to, the factors discussed
below and elsewhere in this release, as well as unexpected changes
in laws, rules or regulations, or their enforcement by applicable
authorities; the failure of parties to contracts with the company
to perform as agreed; social or labour unrest; changes in commodity
prices; and the failure of exploration programs or studies to
deliver anticipated results or results that would justify and
support continued exploration, studies, development or
operations.
Although the forward-looking statements contained in this
release are based upon what management of the company believes are
reasonable assumptions, the company cannot assure investors that
actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking
statements. These forward-looking statements are made as of the
date of this release and are expressly qualified in their entirety
by this cautionary statement. Subject to applicable securities
laws, the company does not assume any obligation to update or
revise the forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect
events or circumstances occurring after the date of this
release.
SOURCE Premier Gold Mines Limited