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Toronto, Canada - Seabridge
Gold announced today it has executed two agreements with Pretium
Resources Inc. to: (1) establish the terms under which mining operations at
one project can encroach on the other's boundaries; and (2) explore the
potential for joint development of Seabridge's KSM
project and Pretium's Snowfield project which
together represent the largest undeveloped gold resource in North America.
Mutual Access Agreement
The KSM and Snowfield projects have a common
boundary and neither can be mined to its maximum extent without encroaching
on the other's land position. A Mutual Access Agreement has therefore been
signed which includes provisions for, amongst other things:
·
mutual access for stripping of
overburden, which will provide:
- Seabridge with
access to conduct stripping activities on Pretium's
Snowfield project to extract ore from Seabridge's
KSM project, with Pretium having the right to
require Seabridge to process Snowfield
project ore accessed by Seabridge's stripping
activities on Pretium's Snowfield project and
to receive the value of the contained metal less a processing fee; and
- Pretium with
access to conduct stripping activities on Seabridge's
KSM project to extract ore from Pretium's
Snowfield project, with Seabridge having the
right to require Pretium to process KSM
project ore accessed by Pretium's stripping
activities on Seabridge's KSM project and to
receive the value of the contained metal less a processing fee; and
- Pretium
access to its Snowfield and Brucejack projects
over KSM project lands.
With the Mutual Access Agreement in hand, each of Seabridge and Pretium can
continue with plans to optimize the mining at each of their respective
projects independently.
Mutual Cooperation and Confidentiality Agreement
A Mutual Cooperation and Confidentiality Agreement
has been signed that provides for, amongst standard provisions, the
preparation of an engineering study to examine the economics of combining Seabridge's KSM project and Pretium's
Snowfield project as a single operation. The study is expected to be
completed in the fourth quarter of this year. Seabridge
will have responsibility for managing the study under the direction of Jay
Layman, its Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Prior to
joining Seabridge in March of this year, Mr. Layman
was Vice President Solutions and Innovation for Newmont Mining Company where
he was responsible for managing Global Technical Services.
Seabridge President and CEO Rudi Fronk noted that
"our agreements with Pretium represent the
kind of co-operation that is needed from the owners of two major projects
which border on each other. These agreements will enable Seabridge
to carry out the stripping operations on Pretium's
ground that would be required under our Preliminary Feasibility Study and
examine whether overall economics can be improved if we combine the KSM and
Snowfield projects."
On May 2, 2011 Seabridge
released a new Preliminary Feasibility Study which confirms that KSM is a
robust stand-alone 52 year mine life project with operating and total costs
per ounce well below the current average of the major gold producers (see http://www.seabridgegold.net/news.php). Mineral reserves at
KSM are estimated as follows:
The updated KSM Preliminary Feasibility Study was
prepared by Wardrop, A Tetra Tech Company, and
incorporates the work of a number of industry-leading consulting firms.
Seabridge holds a 100% interest in several North American gold resource
projects. The Company's principal assets are the KSM property located near
Stewart, British Columbia, Canada and the Courageous Lake gold project
located in Canada's Northwest Territories. For a breakdown of Seabridge's mineral reserves and resources by project and
category please visit the Company's website at www.seabridgegold.net/resources.php.
All reserve and resource estimates reported by the
Corporation were calculated in accordance with the Canadian National
Instrument 43-101 and the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy
Classification system. These standards differ significantly from the
requirements of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Mineral
resources which are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic
viability.
This document contains "forward-looking
information" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation and
"forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United
States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. This information and
these statements, referred to herein as "forward-looking
statements", are made as of the date of this document. Forward-looking
statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect current
estimates, predictions, expectations or beliefs regarding future events and
include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to: (i) the amount of mineral reserves and mineral resources;
(ii) any potential for the increase of mineral reserves and mineral
resources, whether in existing zones or new zones; (iii) the amount of future
production; (iv) further optimization of the PFS including capacity
expansion; (v) completion of, and submission of, the Environmental Assessment
Application; and (vi) potential for engineering improvements. Any statements
that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions,
expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future
events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as
"expects", "anticipates", "plans", "projects",
"estimates", "envisages", "assumes",
"intends", "strategy", "goals",
"objectives" or variations thereof or stating that certain actions,
events or results "may", "could", "would",
"might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved, or the
negative of any of these terms and similar expressions) are not statements of
historical fact and may be forward-looking statements.
All forward-looking statements are based on Seabridge's or its consultants' current beliefs as well
as various assumptions made by them and information currently available to
them. These assumptions include: (i) the presence
of and continuity of metals at the Project at modeled grades; (ii) the
capacities of various machinery and equipment; (iii) the availability of
personnel, machinery and equipment at estimated prices; (iv) exchange rates;
(v) metals sales prices; (vi) appropriate discount rates; (vii) tax rates and
royalty rates applicable to the proposed mining operation; (viii) financing
structure and costs; (ix) anticipated mining losses and dilution; (x)
metallurgical performance; (xi) reasonable contingency requirements; (xii)
success in realizing further optimizations and potential in exploration
programs and proposed operations; (xiii) receipt of regulatory approvals on
acceptable terms, including the necessary right of way for the proposed
tunnels; and (xiv) the negotiation of satisfactory terms with impacted First
Nations groups. Although management considers these assumptions to be
reasonable based on information currently available to it, they may prove to
be incorrect. Many forward-looking statements are made assuming the
correctness of other forward looking statements, such as statements of net
present value and internal rates of return, which are based on most of the
other forward-looking statements and assumptions herein. The cost information
is also prepared using current values, but the time for incurring the costs
will be in the future and it is assumed costs will remain stable over the
relevant period.
By their very nature, forward-looking statements
involve inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, and
risks exist that estimates, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking
statements will not be achieved or that assumptions do not reflect future experience.
We caution readers not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking
statements as a number of important factors could cause the actual outcomes
to differ materially from the beliefs, plans, objectives, expectations,
anticipations, estimates assumptions and intentions expressed in such
forward-looking statements. These risk factors may be generally stated as the
risk that the assumptions and estimates expressed above do not occur, but
specifically include, without limitation: risks relating to variations in the
mineral content within the material identified as mineral reserves or mineral
resources from that predicted; variations in rates of recovery and
extraction; developments in world metals markets; risks relating to
fluctuations in the Canadian dollar relative to the US dollar; increases in
the estimated capital and operating costs or unanticipated costs;
difficulties attracting the necessary work force; increases in financing
costs or adverse changes to the terms of available financing, if any; tax
rates or royalties being greater than assumed; changes in development or
mining plans due to changes in logistical, technical or other factors;
changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; risks relating
to receipt of regulatory approvals or settlement of an agreement with
impacted First Nations groups; the effects of competition in the markets in
which Seabridge operates; operational and
infrastructure risks and the additional risks described in Seabridge's Annual Information Form filed with SEDAR in
Canada (available at www.sedar.com ) for the year ended December 31, 2010 and in the Corporation's Annual
Report Form 40-F filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on
EDGAR (available at www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml ). Seabridge cautions that the foregoing
list of factors that may affect future results is not exhaustive.
When relying on our forward-looking statements to
make decisions with respect to Seabridge, investors
and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other
uncertainties and potential events. Seabridge does
not undertake to update any forward-looking statement, whether written or
oral, that may be made from time to time by Seabridge
or on our behalf, except as required by law.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
"Rudi Fronk"
President & C.E.O.
For further information please contact:
Rudi P. Fronk, President and C.E.O.
Tel: (416) 367-9292 • Fax: (416) 367-2711
Email: info@seabridgegold.net
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