Ventana Acknowledges Commencement of
Unsolicited Bid by EBX
Vancouver, BC, December
17, 2010 – Ventana Gold Corp. (TSX: VEN) ("Ventana"
or the "Company") acknowledges that EBX has now filed its take-over
bid circular and commenced its offer to acquire all of the issued and
outstanding common shares of Ventana that it does not
own at a price of $12.63 in cash per common share. The EBX offer will be open
for acceptance until 8:00 pm Eastern Time on January 24, 2011. However, this
offer is not a "permitted bid" under Ventana's
shareholder rights plan.
The Board of Directors of Ventana (the "Board") is in the process of
reviewing and evaluating the EBX offer and related take-over bid circular with
its financial and legal advisors and will communicate a recommendation to
shareholders as soon as possible. The Board recommends that Ventana
shareholders defer making any decision until the Board has had an opportunity
to fully review the EBX offer and to make a formal recommendation as to its
merits. Shareholders will be promptly notified of any recommendation by the
Board through a news release and circular in accordance with applicable
securities laws.
As previously announced,
the Board will make every effort to maximize value for the benefit of Ventana's shareholders and will update shareholders from
time to time as the EBX offer progresses.
The Company has also
engaged Laurel Hill Advisory Group as its information agent in respect of the
EBX offer. Questions regarding the EBX offer and, once the directors' circular
has been filed, the Company's response to the EBX offer, can be directed to
Laurel Hill at North American toll free 1-877-304-0211 or outside North America
416-304-0211.
About Ventana
Ventana
is a Vancouver-based mineral exploration and development company with mineral
rights to 4,590 hectares of exploration property in northeastern Colombia. The
Company has two project areas, La Bodega and Cal-Vetas,
of which the flagship La Bodega project contains multiple high-grade zones of
gold, silver and copper mineralization. Ventana has
announced the results to the project's scoping study and completed its first
inferred mineral resource which includes 27 million tonnes
grading 3.9 grams per tonne gold, 21.5 grams per tonne silver, and 0.14% copper for a total of 3.5 million
ounces of gold, 19.2 million ounces of silver and 84.9 million pounds of
copper. There is significant potential to expand the resource and the Company
intends to continue aggressive exploration at the project both from surface and
underground.
Ventana's shares trade on the Toronto Stock
Exchange under the symbol VEN.
For additional information
please visit http://www.ventanagold.com/ or contact:
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Ventana Gold Corp.
Letitia Cornacchia,
VP Investor Relations
Tel: 1 (416) 644-5084
Email: lcornacchia@ventanagold.com
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Cautionary Statement
Regarding Forward-looking Information
Certain of
the statements made and information contained in this press release may
constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable
securities legislation. All information and statements which are not historical
fact constitute forward-looking information and, in many cases, can be
identified by words such as "may", "will",
"expect", "plan", "anticipate",
"believe", "estimate", "potential", or other
similar terminology. The forward-looking information contained in this press
release is based on the reasonable expectations and beliefs of management as at
the date of this press release and involves numerous assumptions, known and
unknown risks and uncertainties, both general and specific to Ventana and the industry in which the Company operates.
Such assumptions, risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to
future prices of gold, the factual results of current exploration, development
and mining activities, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be
evaluated as well as those factors disclosed in Ventana's
documents filed from time to time with the securities regulators in the
provinces of British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario. Should one or more of these
risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove
incorrect, actual results, performance or achievements of the Company, or
industry results, may vary materially from those described in this press
release. Accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on
forward-looking information. Except as otherwise required by law, Ventana does not intend to and assumes no obligation to
update or revise forward-looking information, whether as a result of new
information, plans, events or otherwise.