Toronto – Primero Mining Corp. is pleased to announce the successful completion of the previously announced plan of arrangement , whereby Primero has acquired all of the outstanding shares of Brigus Gold Corp. Brigus’ principal assets are the wholly owned Black Fox mine and mill, and adjoining properties, Grey Fox and Pike River in the Timmins Gold District of Ontario, Canada.
As of today, and including the 41,340,664 Primero common shares issued as consideration under the Arrangement to the former shareholders of Brigus, Primero has 157,166,699 common shares issued and outstanding. An additional 2,729,558 common shares have been reserved for issuance in connection with new Primero options issued to the former option holders of Brigus pursuant to the Arrangement.
“The closing of the Brigus transaction transforms Primero into a diversified, Americas based mid-tier gold producer with a pipeline of growth projects,” stated Joseph Conway, President and Chief Executive Officer. "Primero now has two producing mines with a critical production scale of approximately 250,000 gold equivalent ounces in 2014 at below average costs. It also has a peer leading growth profile as production is expected to increase to around 400,000 gold equivalent ounces by the end of 2016 with the completion of our current expansion project at San Dimas and the addition of production from Cerro del Gallo, should we make a positive construction decision in mid-2014. The Black Fox mine provides Primero entry into a historic and prospective gold belt and leverages our technical expertise in underground mining. Furthermore our balance sheet remains strong and our market capitalization and liquidity have improved providing exposure to a broader group of investors. We welcome Brigus shareholders and look forward to investing in the Black Fox and Grey Fox assets to create significant value for all of our stakeholders.”
Confirmations of holdings will be sent shortly to former Brigus shareholders and optionholders receiving consideration pursuant to the Arrangement. Former Brigus shareholders as a group were also recently granted 90.1% of the ordinary shares of the newly incorporated Fortune Bay Corp. (“Fortune Bay”). Pursuant to the Arrangement, Fortune Bay assumed Brigus’ non Ontario interests including the Goldfields Project in Saskatchewan and the Ixhuatán and Huizopa Projects in Mexico. It is expected that Brigus’ shares will cease trading and will be delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange (“TSX”) and the New York Stock Exchange MKT (“NYSE MKT”) in approximately 2-3 business days in accordance with the rules of the TSX and NYSE MKT.
