Wellgreen Platinum Issues Clarifying News Release
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - May 8, 2014) -
Wellgreen Platinum Ltd. (TSX-VENTURE:WG)(OTCQX:WGPLF)
As a result of a review of the Company's disclosure record by
the British Columbia Securities Commission (the "BCSC"), the
Company is issuing this news release to clarify and retract certain
previous disclosure made by the Company concerning its Wellgreen
and Shakespeare projects.
Clarification of
Wellgreen Project Technical Disclosure
Non-Compliant Disclosure of Alternate Scenarios based on the
2012 Wellgreen Preliminary Economic Assessment ("2012 Wellgreen
PEA")
The Company has previously, in certain of its investor
presentation materials and on its website, made disclosure relating
to metal price, production summaries and net present value
scenarios relating to the Wellgreen project which are not
contemplated in the 2012 Wellgreen PEA (a technical report in
respect of the 2012 Wellgreen PEA was filed on SEDAR by the Company
on August 9, 2012). The Company acknowledges that this prior
disclosure was contained in the Company's corporate presentation
and investor fact sheet that were posted to the Company's website
as recently as April 2014. The Company further acknowledges that
such disclosure used factors that reduced certain metal price
assumptions to 30% below the base case scenario contemplated in the
2012 Wellgreen PEA, which resulted in a significantly lower net
present value (NPV) figure than the base case. In addition to not
being based solely on the 2012 Wellgreen PEA, such disclosure was
not supported by the sensitivity analysis contained in the 2012
Wellgreen PEA, and therefore effectively amounted to the disclosure
of a new PEA result. This disclosure was an internal
re-interpretation, partly based on the 2012 Wellgreen PEA, but was
not prepared to the standard of a preliminary economic assessment
and was not suitable for disclosure because it was not supported by
a technical report. The Company acknowledges that such prior
disclosure was contrary to National Instrument 43-101 -
Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI
43-101"). The Company retracts all such disclosure, and cautions
investors not to rely on any economic assessments outside of those
expressly contained in the 2012 Wellgreen PEA.
The Company also clarifies that the 2012 Wellgreen PEA remains
current, valid and relevant. In particular, the Company directs
investors to the Base Case LME 3 year average metal prices minus
20% scenario for the project in the 2012 Wellgreen PEA as being
reflective of the current metal price environment. The 2012
Wellgreen PEA technical report is available under the Company's
SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com, and is also available on the
Company's website:
http://www.wellgreenplatinum.com/pdf/2012_Wellgreen_PEA.pdf.
Investors should note that the 2012 Wellgreen PEA is preliminary
in nature, in that it includes inferred mineral resources that are
considered too speculative geologically to have economic
considerations applied to them that would enable them to be
categorized as mineral reserves, and there is no certainty that the
2012 Wellgreen PEA will be realized. A mineral reserve has not been
estimated for the project as part of the 2012 Wellgreen PEA. A
mineral reserve is the economically mineable part of a measured or
indicated mineral resource demonstrated by at least a
pre-feasibility study. Mineral resources that are not mineral
reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.
The foregoing statements were reviewed and approved by John
Sagman, P.Eng., the Company's Senior Vice President and Chief
Operating Officer, and a "Qualified Person" as defined in NI
43-101.
Absence of Post-Tax Analysis in the 2012 Wellgreen
PEA
The Company notes that the 2012 Wellgreen PEA did not include an
analysis of after-tax economics as required under NI 43-101.
Accordingly, the Company provides the following summary of the tax
environment in the Yukon for the Wellgreen project. Generally
speaking, applicable taxes for mining in the Yukon Territory
currently include a 15% federal income tax rate and a 15%
territorial income tax rate. Under the Quartz Mining Act,
a royalty of up to 12% of profits from mining may also be payable
to the Yukon government. Generally speaking, income taxes are
applicable to pre-tax cash flow from operations less royalties,
capital cost allowance, interest expenses, non-capital carry
forward losses and Canadian exploration expenses and Canadian
development expenses. Generally speaking, royalties are based on
profits minus a number of deductions, including development
allowance, depreciation allowance, community and economic
development expense allowance, plus other incentives for mining
exploration activity.
Non-Compliant Disclosure of Potential Exploration
Targets
On page 10 of the 2013 Annual MD&A the following was stated
regarding the Company's Wellgreen project:
"Future drilling and metallurgical testing will evaluate the
potential of these mineralized areas as near surface starter pits
designed to provide higher grade mill feed early in the life of the
mine."
The Company notes that this statement may be interpreted as an
economic analysis of exploration targets, and that such disclosure
is restricted under NI 43-101 and is also deficient in that it was
not accompanied by the cautionary language required under section
2.3(2)(a) of NI 43-101. Accordingly, the Company retracts this
statement from the 2013 Annual MD&A and cautions investors not
to rely on this statement.
Disclosure of Potential Metallurgical Recovery
Targets
The Company notes that it has previously disclosed, in its
investor presentation materials and on its website, metallurgical
recovery targets for its Wellgreen project that are objectives for
the project and have not yet been achieved. The Company cautions
investors that such information is forward-looking and should not
be interpreted to mean that any such targets have actually been, or
will ever be, achieved. Metallurgical test work is on-going and
includes studies designed to optimize the grinding requirements,
flotation reagents, and the process flow sheet including a magnetic
separation process for the relevant metallurgical domains. An
important focus of this work has been to assess the potential to
improve recovery levels, particularly for platinum, palladium and
gold versus the levels in the 2012 PEA. This work is still in
progress and, upon completion of the current metallurgical sample
test work, the results will be used to generate recovery and
concentrate grade assumptions for the key metallurgical domains in
the updated Preliminary Economic Assessment for the Wellgreen
project.
Timing for updated PEA on the Wellgreen Project
The Company notes that it is continuing its work on completing
an updated PEA on the Wellgreen project, and anticipates completing
the updated PEA by July 2014.
Retraction of
Shakespeare Feasibility Study and Mineral Reserves
The Company has determined that the January 2006 feasibility
study ("2006 Feasibility Study") in respect of the Shakespeare
project, and the information contained therein with respect to
mineral reserve estimates, is no longer valid, and that investors
should not rely on the viability of economic or production
estimates based on the 2006 Feasibility Study because the operating
and capital expenditures estimated therein are outdated and no
longer reliable. Accordingly, the Company retracts the 2006
Feasibility Study and announces that the Shakespeare project does
not currently contain any mineral reserves, as such term is defined
for the purposes of NI 43-101.
Shakespeare Mineral
Resources
The Shakespeare project currently has Indicated and Inferred
resources, as summarized in the following table. The Indicated
(Pit) resource is prior to mining depletion from historic
production, which totaled approximately 0.4 million tonnes from
2007 to 2011:
|
|
In Situ Grade |
Total Contained Metals |
Resource |
Tonnes |
Ni |
Cu |
Co |
Au |
Pt |
Pd |
|
Mlbs |
Mlbs |
Mlbs |
Moz |
Moz |
Moz |
Category |
(Millions) |
(%) |
(%) |
(%) |
(g/t) |
(g/t) |
(g/t) |
|
Ni |
Cu |
Co |
Au |
Pt |
Pd |
Indicated (Pit) |
12.430 |
0.35 |
0.37 |
0.02 |
0.199 |
0.351 |
0.386 |
|
95.9 |
101.4 |
5.5 |
0.08 |
0.14 |
0.15 |
Indicated (UG) |
3.571 |
0.32 |
0.387 |
0.02 |
0.202 |
0.337 |
0.367 |
|
25.2 |
30.5 |
1.6 |
0.02 |
0.04 |
0.04 |
Total Indicated |
16.001 |
0.343 |
0.374 |
0.020 |
0.200 |
0.348 |
0.382 |
|
121.1 |
131.9 |
7.1 |
0.103 |
0.179 |
0.196 |
The Shakespeare project also has an Inferred resource of 1.9
million tonnes, as summarized in the following table:
|
|
In Situ Grade |
Total Contained Metals |
Resource |
Tonnes |
Ni |
Cu |
Co |
Au |
Pt |
Pd |
|
Mlbs |
Mlbs |
Mlbs |
Moz |
Moz |
Moz |
Category |
(Millions) |
(%) |
(%) |
(%) |
(g/t) |
(g/t) |
(g/t) |
|
Ni |
Cu |
Co |
Au |
Pt |
Pd |
Inferred (UG) |
1.871 |
0.325 |
0.363 |
0.022 |
0.209 |
0.34 |
0.357 |
|
13.4 |
15.0 |
0.9 |
0.013 |
0.020 |
0.021 |
Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have
demonstrated economic viability.
Non-Material Status of
Shakespeare Project
The Company has determined that the Shakespeare project is not a
material property of the Company for a number of reasons,
including, but not limited to, the fact that the 2006 Feasibility
Study is no longer reliable, and the project's significantly
smaller scale as compared with the Company's core Wellgreen
PGM-Ni-Cu project. The Company notes that the Shakespeare project
has not been a significant focus of the Company and has remained on
care and maintenance since the Company acquired the project in July
2012, with minimal expenditures. Indeed, during the period from the
Company's acquisition of the Shakespeare project up to December 31,
2013, the Company has spent a total of $677,642 on the project,
which includes $474,409 in project expenditures and $203,333 in
care and maintenance expenditures. By contrast, during the period
from the Company's acquisition of its flagship Wellgreen project in
June 2011 up to December 31, 2013, it has spent approximately $15.3
million on the Wellgreen project.
The Company accordingly confirms that it has no mine development
or production plans with respect to the Shakespeare project over
the near term. Furthermore, there are no studies or work being
carried on at this time on the project. The Wellgreen project has
been and remains the Company's core focus, and is currently the
only material property of the Company.
Other
Clarification
Reporting Gross In-Situ Metal Value
On March 6, 2013, the Company issued a news release (the "March
6, 2013 News Release") reporting the release of its unaudited
interim consolidated financial statements for the three and nine
months ended December 31, 2012 and an update on the Company's
projects. Certain disclosure in the March 6, 2013 News Release
included the gross combined dollar value of contained platinum,
palladium and gold expressed as US$/share, which amounted to
disclosure by the Company of gross in-situ metal value. The Company
notes that such disclosure may be misleading because it fails to
take into consideration operating and capital costs, recoveries,
smelter costs and other factors relating to the potential mining,
extraction and recovery of metals. Accordingly, the Company
retracts this disclosure from the March 6, 2013 News Release, and
cautions investors not to rely on such disclosure.
Qualified Person: All scientific and technical information
disclosed herein was reviewed and approved by John Sagman, P.Eng.,
Wellgreen Platinum's Senior Vice President and Chief Operating
Officer, and a "Qualified Person" as defined in NI 43-101.
Forward Looking Information: This news release includes certain
information that may be deemed "forward-looking information".
Forward-looking information can generally be identified by the use
of forward-looking terminology such as "may", "will", "expect",
"intend", "estimate", "anticipate", "believe", "continue", "plans"
or similar terminology. All information in this release, other than
information of historical facts, including, without limitation, the
potential of the Wellgreen project, information regarding the
timing of future technical reports and general future plans and
objectives for the Wellgreen project are forward-looking
information that involve various risks and uncertainties. Although
the Company believes that the expectations expressed in such
forward-looking information are based on reasonable assumptions,
such expectations are not guarantees of future performance and
actual results or developments may differ materially from those in
the forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is
based on a number of material factors and assumptions. Factors that
could cause actual results to differ materially from the
forward-looking information include unsuccessful exploration
results, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be
refined, results of future resource estimates, future metal prices,
availability of capital and financing on acceptable terms, general
economic, market or business conditions, uninsured risks,
regulatory changes, defects in title, availability of personnel,
materials and equipment on a timely basis, accidents or equipment
breakdowns, delays in receiving government approvals, the Company's
ability to maintain the support of stakeholders necessary to
develop the Wellgreen project, unanticipated environmental impacts
on operations and costs to remedy same, and other exploration or
other risks detailed herein and from time to time in the filings
made by the Company with securities regulatory authorities in
Canada. Readers are cautioned that mineral resources that are not
mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.
Mineral exploration and development of mines is an inherently risky
business. Accordingly, actual events may differ materially from
those projected in the forward-looking information. For more
information on the Company and the risks and challenges of our
business, investors should review our annual filings which are
available at www.sedar.com. The Company does not undertake to
update any forward looking information, except in accordance with
applicable securities laws.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services
Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX
Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or
accuracy of this release.
Wellgreen Platinum Ltd.Chris AckermanManager, Corporate
Communicationscackerman@wellgreenplatinum.comwww.wellgreenplatinum.com
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