VENTANA ANNOUNCES CLOSING OF $20.7 MILLION PRIVATE PLACEMENT WITH SILVER WHEATON
Vancouver, B.C., June 8, 2010 – Ventana Gold Corp. (TSX: VEN) ("Ventana” or "the Company”) announces the closing of the private placement with Silver Wheaton Corp. ("Silver Wheaton”) announced on May 17, 2010. The transaction is comprised of 1.8 million units at a price of $11.50 per unit for gross proceeds of $20.7 million. Each unit is comprised of one common share and one-half of one common share purchase warrant, with each warrant entitling Silver Wheaton to purchase one common share of Ventana at a price of $15.00 until June 7, 2011.
The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the offering to fund further exploration and development of its La Bodega and Cal-Vetas projects and general corporate purposes. The Company may also use the net proceeds, in whole or in part, to prepay the US$20 million debt financing from related parties (the details of which are referred to in the Company's press release of May 21, 2010), interest thereon and the fees in connection with such financing (if paid in cash). The fees payable to the related parties for providing the debt financing remain subject to shareholder approval as required by the TSX and may be subject to reduction in accordance with the terms of the debt financing. As at the date the debt financing was announced, the dollar value of such fees represented 11% of the value of the debt financing.
About Ventana
Ventana is a Vancouver-based mineral exploration and development company with mineral rights to 4,573 hectares of exploration property in northeastern Colombia. The Company’s flagship La Bodega gold-silver project is located in northeastern Columbia immediately adjacent to the Angostura gold-silver project. The La Bodega project contains multiple high-grade zones of gold, silver and copper mineralization occurring in north-northwest dipping parallel-sheeted vein zones, breccias and mineralized faults within a broad, northeast trending regional fault zone.
Ventana recently announced an agreement to acquire the La Baja land and mineral rights, which are strategically located immediately to the southwest of the La Bodega tenements, consolidating Ventana’s ownership along 2.1 kilometres within this prolific gold district.
The La Bodega project has excellent road access and is close to existing infrastructure including power and water. The Company is conducting an aggressive exploration program and progressing engineering studies to develop the deposit. Ventana’s shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol VEN.
About Silver Wheaton
Silver Wheaton is the largest silver streaming company in the world, with a portfolio of world-class assets that include silver streams on Goldcorp’s Peñasquito mine and Barrick’s Pascua-Lama project.
For additional information please visit www.ventanagold.com or contact:
Meghan Brown, Investor Relations Manager
tel 604 638 2002
email mbrown@ventanagold.com
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.