Stornoway Announces
Opening Of A Representative Office In Mistissini
Stornoway Diamond Corporation (TSX-SWY; "Stornoway") is pleased to announce the opening today of a new
representative office for the Renard Diamond
Project in the Cree Community of Mistissini,
Qu�bec. Mistissini is located 250 km south of Renard, and is the closest community to the project
within the James Bay region. The Renard Diamond
Project is a 50:50 joint venture with DIAQUEM INC. ("DIAQUEM"), a
wholly-owned subsidiary of SOQUEM INC. ("SOQUEM"), itself a
wholly-owned subsidiary of Soci�t� g�n�rale de financement du
Qu�bec ("SGF"), the Qu�bec government's main industrial and
financial holding company.
The
new office will provide a forum for exchanging information and liasing with the Crees on a
variety of social, environmental and economic aspects of the Renard Diamond Project, and on the potential for future
training, employment and business opportunities. In addition, the office will
provide information about diamond exploration and diamond mining in general. Stornoway's representative at the office will be Madame
H�l�ne Robitaille, Manager of Community Relations -
Training and Development.
On
July 26th 2010, Stornoway announced the conclusion
of a Pre-Development Agreement ("PDA") between the company, the
Cree Nation of Mistissini, the Grand Council of the
Crees (Eeyou Istchee) / Cree Regional Authority, and DIAQUEM. The PDA
provides for business and employment opportunities for the Crees at the project during the period of pre-development
activities leading up to a potential production decision, the completion of a
comprehensive Business and Employment Capacity Study to assess the full
potential for Cree business and employment opportunities from an eventual Renard Diamond Mine, and the creation of a joint
communication strategy. The parties are currently working towards a more
comprehensive Impacts and Benefits Agreement, scheduled for completion later
in 2011.
About
the Renard Diamond Project
The
Renard Diamond Project is located approximately
250km north of the community of Mistissini and
350km north of Chibougamau in the James Bay region
of North-Central Qu�bec, and falls within the environmental protection regime
of the James Bay and
Northern Qu�bec Agreement. In March 2010 Stornoway
released the results of a Preliminary Assessment at Renard
that showed the project to have the potential to produce approximately 30
million carats of diamonds over a 25 year mine life. Total capital investment
is currently estimated to be $511 million, with an average operating
expenditure of approximately $67 million per year and a workforce of 300
people. Pending the completion of all ongoing mine feasibility and
environmental and social impact assessments, and the receipt of all
regulatory approvals, Stornoway currently
anticipates being able to make a potential production decision at Renard by the end of 2011.
On
December 14th, 2010, Stornoway announced an
agreement to acquire DIAQUEM'S 50% interest in the Renard
Diamond Project in a transaction that would make DIAQUEM a significant
shareholder of Stornoway. Upon the closure of the
acquisition, which is subject to the approval of Stornoway's
existing shareholders at an extraordinary meeting to be held in Toronto on
February 10th, 2011, Stornoway will have acquired
sole ownership of the project.
About
Stornoway Diamond Corporation
Stornoway Diamond Corporation is one of Canada's leading
diamond exploration and development companies, involved in the discovery of
over 200 kimberlites in seven Canadian diamond
districts. The Company benefits from a diversified diamond property
portfolio, a strong financial platform and management and technical teams
with experience in each segment of the diamond "pipeline" from
exploration to marketing.
About
SGF
Soci�t� g�n�rale de financement du Qu�bec (sgfqc.com), an industrial and
financial holding company, has a mission to carry out economic development
projects, particularly in the industrial sector, in cooperation with partners
and in compliance with accepted profitability requirements and with the
economic development policy of the Qu�bec government. As part of its new
mandate, SGF is authorized by the Qu�bec government to go beyond its traditional
role as an equity investor by offering complementary solutions, such as
loans, debentures or preferred or convertible shares.
SOQUEM,
a wholly-owned subsidiary of Soci�t� g�n�rale de financement du
Qu�bec, is to undertake exploration, development and mining activities
throughout the province of Qu�bec.
On
behalf of the Board
STORNOWAY
DIAMOND CORPORATION
/s/
"Matt Manson"
Matt
Manson
President and Chief Executive Officer
For more information, please contact Matt Manson (President and CEO) at
416-304-1026
or Nick Thomas (Manager Investor Relations) at 604-983-7754, toll free at
1-877-331-2232
Pour
plus d'information, veuillez contacter M. Ghislain Poirier, Vice-pr�sident
Affaires publiques de Stornoway au 418-780-3938,
gpoirier@stornowaydiamonds.com ou
** Website: www.stornowaydiamonds.com Email: info@stornowaydiamonds.com **
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 and the Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation,
to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.
Forward-looking
statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect current
expectations or beliefs regarding future events and include, but are not
limited to, statements with respect to: (i) the
amount of mineral resources and potential mineral deposits; (ii) the amount
of future production over any period; (iii) net present value and internal
rates of return of the proposed mining operation; (iv) capital costs and
operating costs; (v) mine expansion potential and expected mine life; and (vi)
expected time frames for completion of permitting and regulatory approvals,
completion of a Feasibility Study and making a production decision. 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", "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 Stornoway's
or its consultants' current beliefs as well as various assumptions made by
and information currently available to them. Many of these assumptions are
set forth in the news release and include: (i)
estimates of net present value and internal rates of return; (ii) estimates
of potential production and duration of mine life; (iii) estimated completion
date for the Feasibility Study; (iv) required capital investment and
estimated workforce requirements; (v) receipt of regulatory approvals on
acceptable terms within commonly experienced time frames; (vi) the assumption
that the partners will make a production decision, and that decision will be
positive; (vii) anticipated timelines for the commencement of mine
production. 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 rate 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, including the
assumption in many forward-looking statements that other forward-looking
statements will be correct, but specifically include, without limitation,
risks relating to variations in the grade, kimberlite
lithologies and country rock content within the
material identified as mineral resources from that predicted, variations in
rates of recovery and breakage; the greater uncertainty of potential mineral
deposits, developments in world diamond markets, slower increases in diamond
valuations than assumed, risks relating to fluctuations in the Canadian
dollar and other currencies relative to the US dollar, increases in the costs
of proposed capital and operating expenditures, increases in financing costs
or adverse changes to the terms of available financing, if any, tax rates or
royalties being greater than assumed, results of exploration in areas of
potential expansion of resources, changes in development or mining plans due
to changes in other factors or exploration results of Stornoway
or its joint venture partners, changes in project parameters as plans
continue to be refined, risks relating to receipt of regulatory approvals or
settlement of an Impact and Benefits Agreement, the effects of competition in
the markets in which Stornoway operates,
operational and infrastructure risks and the additional risks described in Stornoway's most recently filed Annual Information Form,
annual and interim MD&As, and Stornoway's
anticipation of and success in managing the foregoing risks. Stornoway 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 Stornoway, investors and others should carefully consider
the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and potential events. Stornoway does not undertake to update any
forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from
time to time by Stornoway or on our behalf, except
as required by law.
|