Horizonte Minerals Acquisition Of Teck Cominco -5-

27th Jul 2010 07:30

a fellow of the Society of Economic Geologists and EuroGeol. Jeremy J. Martin (aged 33 years), MSc, ASCM, Director and Chief Executive Officer Mr Martin holds a degree in mining geology from the Camborne School of Mines, and a MSc. in mineral exploration from the University of Leicester. He has worked in South America and in Central America and Europe, where he was responsible for grassroots regional metalliferous exploration programmes through to resources definition and mine development. Mr Martin has been involved in the formation of two AIM traded companies and has completed a number of high value mineral project transactions. He has served on the board of Ovoca Gold Plc and is a member of the Society of Economic Geologists and the Institute of Mining Analysts. Nicholas R.Winer (aged 50 years), BSc, Director and Chief Operations Officer Mr Winer has over 20 years of experience in gold, base metals and diamond exploration in South America, Africa and Australia. He was exploration manager for AngloGold do Brasil Ltda, where he was responsible for Brownfield exploration around its mining operations as well as generative exploration programmes. Prior to this he spent 18 years with the exploration division of BHP Limited (now BHP Billiton Limited), three of these being as exploration manager for Brazil. He joined and became a shareholder in Mineração Vale dos Reis Ltda ("MVR") in August 2002 and has played a key role in the development of its exploration portfolio, which has now been integrated into the Group. Mr Winer has lived in Brazil since 1996, has permanent residency status and speaks fluent Portuguese. He has a BSc honours degree in geology/geophysics from the University of Macquarie, Sydney, Australia, is a member of the Society of Economic Geologists, the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada and was a past director of the Agência para o Desenvolvimento Tecnológico da Indústria Mineral Brasileira. Allan M.Walker (aged 50 years), MA, Non-Executive Director Mr Walker has over 22 years' experience in investment banking, primarily focused on energy sector project finance and private equity, particularly in emerging markets. He has extensive contacts in the renewable energy sector worldwide as well as with governments, multilateral agencies and regional development banks. He joined Black River Asset Management (UK) Limited, an indirectly held subsidiary of Cargill Inc, in October 2005 to structure and develop a renewable energy, biofuels and carbon fund. Prior to this he was head of power and infrastructure in London for Standard Bank Plc from May 2002, a world leader in emerging markets resource banking. He was also previously a director in the Global Energy and Project Finance Group of Credit Suisse First Boston in London and ran the energy group at CSFB Garantia in Sao Paulo, Brazil from 1998 to 2001, where he spent seven years covering Latin America. He also spent three years in the energy group of ING Barings in New York. Mr Walker graduated with an MA in economic geography from Cambridge University in 1982 and speaks Portuguese and Spanish. Proposed Director Alexander N. Christopher (aged 50 years), BSc (Hons), PGeo (BC), Non-Executive Director Mr Christopher, a professional geologist, has 27 years of experience in mineral exploration and the mining industry. He is a member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists BC and possesses an Honours B.Sc. in Geology from McMaster University and an Environmental Biology Technology diploma from Canadore College. Mr Christopher currently holds the position of General Manager New Ventures within the Corporate Development Group at Teck. Mr Christopher has been with Teck since the mid 1980's holding a number of positions within the company and has spent much of his time over the past 10 years focusing on the junior mining sector, partnerships, property transactions and Teck's junior mining equity investments. Prior to moving into a more business oriented role at Teck, he spent over a decade in the field on early to advanced stage exploration projects focused on gold and base metal exploration. He is currently a member of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada and the Association of Mineral Exploration BC where Mr Christopher was previously a member of the Board of Directors. During his term on the Board of the Association of Mineral Exploration BC, Mr Christopher served as Vice Chairman as well as on a number of committees including the Executive Committee and the Finance Committee, which he continues to serve on at this time. Senior Management Gary Townsend, FCA, CTA, Chief Financial Officer Mr Townsend is a Chartered Accountant with over 10 years' experience in the gold mining industry. He worked for Ashanti Goldfields from 1996 until 2004 as Group Financial Controller where he was responsible for setting up financial reporting systems across the group which had seven operating mines across Africa. He was also responsible for ensuring compliance with all financial regulations including SEC filings and for tax planning. In 2004 he was appointed Chief Financial Officer of Guinor Gold, a TSX listed company with operations in Guinea in West Africa and was involved in raising over US$100 million in equity and project finance for the expansion of operations. Jeffrey Karoly, Proposed Chief Financial Officer Mr Karoly, 42, is a Chartered Accountant and worked from 1997 to 2007 with Minorco/Anglo American in a number of finance and business development functions across the group in Europe, Southern Africa and Brazil, where he lived for two years, reporting to the Head of Exploration for Latin America. From 2008 to present he has been the Chief Financial Officer of South American Ferro Metals, a private company that has acquired, explored and developed an iron ore property in Brazil. Mr Karoly started his career at Coopers and Lybrand in London and Budapest and speaks Portuguese. Antonio Valério da Silva, BSc, Director of HM do Brasil Ltda Mr da Silva is a Brazilian geologist with over 35 years of minerals industry experience. He worked for five years in the Brazilian Mines Department during which time he developed a keen understanding of the Brazilian mining code and the associated legal obligations. This was followed by 11 years working for consulting companies on a variety of projects in the Amazon region of Brazil. This included a period with Docegeo, the exploration arm of Compania Vale de Rio Doce (CVRD), and NUCLEBRAS (Empresas Nucleares Brasileiras), the Brazilian government's nuclear mineral exploration company. Since 1983 he has acted as a consultant to a number of local mining companies and in 1986 he co-founded MVR which has worked with companies including BHP (BHP Empreendimentos Minerais Ltda), AngloGold do Brasil Ltda, Noranda Exploração Mineral Ltda, and through Mineração Serra da Canga Ltda, partnerships with EBX, Wheaton River Minerals and most recently GoldCorp Inc. He has a geology degree from the Pará State University, Brazil and lives in Bélem, Brazil. He is an officer and legal representative of the Company's Brazilian subsidiary, HM do Brasil Ltda, and is its 'Competent Person' under Brazilian law. 4. Business and Strategy The Directors believe that the development of the exploration sector is important in order to safeguard a sustainable economic future for the mining industry and that the lack of direct investment in exploration activities over the past decade has resulted in the projected global demand exceeding the projected global supply for a number of commodities. The Directors believe this creates an opportunity for junior exploration companies to create significant value in an expanding market. Horizonte's objective is to exploit these opportunities as a focused exploration company so as to become a recognised supplier of quality exploration projects with the potential for economic discoveries in Brazil and a preferred exploration partner for major gold and base metal mining companies in the region. Horizonte's core projects, its exploration portfolio and the management team's experience of working in South America, particularly in Brazil, should, in the view of the Directors, assist in assuring that the Company is well positioned to exploit these opportunities. The Directors will continue a strategy designed to create shareholder value through the successful exploration and development of prospects and discoveries. Key elements to this strategy are: · development of the combined projects at Lontra and Araguaia through resource definition drilling to create a significant nickel resource · continuing the development of Horizonte's gold projects · adding to the Group's existing portfolio by identifying and acquiring gold and base metal projects in Brazil and Peru · continuing to seek to enter into partnership/joint venture arrangements with mineral exploration and production partners to develop newly identified or acquired assets Nickel is an essential metal in modern society. Two thirds of all nickel mined is used in the production of stainless steels with the remaining one third used in a variety of products including specialised non-ferrous alloys, electroplating and batteries. Increased demand for stainless steel, in recent years largely driven by the Chinese and to a lesser extent by the Indian markets, has been rising at an average of over 3 per cent. per annum and it is anticipated that this trend will continue for many years. The dramatic fluctuations in demand for and price of nickel seen in recent years, including (MORE TO FOLLOW) Dow Jones Newswires July 27, 2010 02:30 ET (06:30 GMT)