VANCOUVER, BC, April 21, 2021 /CNW/ - Aris Gold
Corporation (Aris Gold or
the Company) (TSX: ARIS) (OTCQX: ALLXF) received a request from the
OTC Markets Group Inc. (OTC Markets) on April 19, 2021 to comment on recent trading and
promotional activity related to Aris
Gold's common shares. The Company believes the increased
trading volume on April 19, 2021
prompted the OTC Markets to contact the Company. Aris Gold cannot predict with any certainty
whether its active investor relations and outreach program, a
summary of which is provided below, or its new corporate branding,
disclosed growth strategy, investor marketing programs or
activities, may have materially affected the recent trading
activity in the Company's common shares.
Following the launch of Aris Gold
on February 4, 2021, management
embarked on an active investor marketing program to build brand
awareness, increase visibility and importantly, increase share
trading activity. The marketing program has included numerous calls
and meetings with US and Canadian shareholders, bank analysts, bank
and brokerage house sales desks, newsletter writers, and media.
Since February 4, 2021 the Company
has also attended a number of mining investment conferences
including the BMO Global Metals and Mining Conference and the Red
Cloud Pre-PDAC Conference in March, and the World Gold Forum during
the second week of April. Finally, there has been significant
public disclosure, both in press releases and in the Company's
Canadian regulatory filings, summarizing the Company's successes,
plans and strategy.
As part of its investor relations program, Aris Gold retained Red Cloud Financial Services,
a full-service broker/dealer offering investor outreach, non-deal
marketing, research coverage, and investment banking/advisory
services to Canadian mining companies. Aris
Gold management has made several presentations to
Red Cloud's team and clients,
including a webinar on April 15 that
was widely viewed by retail and institutional shareholders.
Red Cloud also published a research
report on Aris Gold on April 5, 2021 which summarized the Company's
annual financial results and was exclusively distributed to
Red Cloud's client base which
includes over 300 institutional accounts, 1,500 retail brokers, 150
private equity groups and 250 strategic mining investors.
Aris Gold also engaged Wealth
Research Group LLC, an independent media company, to provide
marketing services with a one-time media campaign. On April 15, 2021, Wealth Research Group, through
other third-party service providers, commenced a one-time media
campaign that includes written materials containing information
from Aris Gold's public filings and
publicly available investor presentation, together with discussions
with management about the Company and its strategy. Management
understands that on April 19, 2021
Wealth Research Group sent an email, through Future Money Trends
and NAI, to its subscribers summarizing the Company's public
disclosure and publicly available investor presentation. Wealth
Research Group prepared the materials used in the media campaign
from the Company's public filings and maintained editorial control
over content. Aris Gold did not have
any editorial control over the content other than to confirm
factual matters related to the Company were correct.
In Aris Gold's opinion, none of
the statements of fact related to Aris
Gold made in the promotional materials distributed by
Red Cloud or Wealth Research Group
are materially false and/or misleading.
In addition, Aris Gold retained
Renmark Financial Communications, a full-service investor relations
firm representing small, medium and large cap public companies
trading on all major North American exchanges. From its four
offices in North America,
Renmark's team of 30 investor relations professional reaches over
800 influential financial advisors per day.
In conjunction with the above-mentioned corporate changes the
Company's new board of directors and management team led a
C$85 million private placement
financing. The financing was announced by the Company on
November 23, 2020 and was priced at
C$2.25 per unit with each unit
comprised of one common share of the Company and one common share
purchase warrant convertible to one common share at a price of
C$2.75 until July 29, 2025. The purchase price for a unit
represented a 14% premium to the closing price of the Company's
common shares on the date prior to announcement. The common shares
and share purchase warrants were subject to a four-month statutory
hold period which expired on April 4,
2021 at which time approximately 37.8 million of the
Company's common shares and the share purchase warrants became free
trading.
Separately, on July 29, 2020, the
Company completed a bought deal financing for aggregate gross
proceeds of C$50 million. A total of
22,222,222 special warrants of the Company were sold at a price of
CA$2.25 per special warrant. Each special warrant entitles the
holder thereof to receive one unit of the Company on the exercise
or deemed exercise of the special warrant, with each unit
comprising one common share of the Company and one common share
purchase warrant convertible to one common share of the Company
until July 29, 2025 at a price of
C$2.75 per common share (subject to
adjustment in certain events). The price of the special warrants
represented a 15% discount to the closing price of the Company's
common shares on the date of issuance.
Since February 4, 2021, and to the
knowledge of the Company, prior to that time, Aris Gold has complied with its reporting
requirements in Canada and
disclosure requirements of the OTCQX, including press releases and
updates on the status of its business and operations at the Marmato
Mine.
Following an inquiry with management, the directors, and control
persons, Aris Gold can confirm that
other than participation of certain directors and officers in the
above-described C$85 million
financing, none of its officers, directors or shareholders owning
10% or more of the Company's securities, have bought or sold shares
since February 4, 2021 when the new
board of directors and management team were appointed. To the best
of the Company's knowledge, none of the third-party service
providers mentioned above have sold or purchased the Company's
securities in that time frame either.
Aris Gold routinely responds to
inquiries from shareholders, potential investors and investment
analysts and prepares its own investor relations materials. As
such, Aris Gold urges its
shareholder base and followers to review the Company's website
(www.arisgold.com) and its filings on SEDAR. Any investor seeking
to verify whether a publication was disseminated by Aris Gold can email info@arisgold.com.
About Aris Gold
Aris Gold is a Canadian mining
company listed on the TSX under the symbol ARIS. The Company is led
by an executive team with a demonstrated track record of creating
value through building globally relevant gold mining companies.
Aris Gold operates the Marmato mine
in Colombia, where a modernization
and expansion program is underway, and the Juby project, an
advanced exploration stage gold project in the Abitibi greenstone
belt of Ontario, Canada.
Aris Gold plans to pursue
acquisition and other growth opportunities to unlock value creation
from scale and diversification.
Additional information on Aris
Gold can be found at www.arisgold.com and www.sedar.com.
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SOURCE Aris Gold Corporation