MIDAS GOLD APPOINTS IDAHO-BASED DIRECTORS
Returning to its Historic Roots, Project to be called the “Stibnite Gold Project” Going Forward
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA - Midas Gold Corp. (TSX:MAX / OTCQX:MDRPF) and its wholly-owned Idaho-based subsidiary Midas Gold Idaho, Inc. (“Midas Gold, Inc.”) (collectively, “Midas Gold”) today appointed prominent local community members to Midas Gold Corp.’s and Midas Gold, Inc.’s boards of directors, adding a significant level of local representation and accountability at all levels of the organization. In addition, local community input has resulted in a decision to use the name “Stibnite Gold Project” (the “Project”) going forward in order to reflect the Project’s historic and local name, and maintain continuity with the storied past of this important mining district located in Valley County, Idaho.
Midas Gold Board Appointments
As part of its objective of increasing local accountability and representation in all its activities, Midas Gold today announced the appointment of several US-based directors at both the parent and subsidiary levels, significantly increasing the representation from Valley County and Idaho. Boise residents Laurel Sayer and Keith Allred have been appointed to the Board of Directors of Midas Gold Corp., while Valley County residents Don Bailey, Frank Eld, Scott Davenport and Ronn Julian, as well as Denver resident Kenneth Brunk have been appointed to the Board of Directors of Midas Gold, Inc., Midas Gold Corp.’s wholly-owned Idaho subsidiary that will manage activities at the Stibnite Gold Project going forward.
“The best way for our project to reflect the needs and values of Valley County and Idaho is to have genuine representation from these areas at all levels of our decision-making process,” said Stephen Quin, President & CEO of Midas Gold Corp. “We are excited that these Idahoans have agreed to help guide us in shaping the future of Midas Gold and the Stibnite Gold Project.”
Midas Gold Corp. Board of Directors
The appointment of Mr. Allred and Ms. Sayer brings an Idaho-based environmental and sustainable development perspective directly to the Midas Gold Corp. Board of Directors. Both have distinguished themselves as seasoned political professionals and conservationists who will work to ensure that economic development is also protective of the natural environment, which is of great importance not only to Midas Gold and its employees, but to Idaho and the Nation. The appointment of Mr. Allred and Ms. Sayer increases the Board of Midas Gold Corp. to nine directors, with a broad representation from the US, Canada and the UK, and considerable depth of experience in capital markets, corporate governance, exploration, operations, mine development, environmental protection, sustainable development and financial reporting.
“We are extremely pleased that Keith Allred and Laurel Sayer have agreed to join the Midas Gold Corp. Board of Directors,” said Mr. Quin. “While our Board and management team have always been focused on ensuring that Midas Gold conducts itself in a sustainable, environmentally conscious manner, these new directors will bring a valuable Idaho perspective that can only come from people who live in Idaho.”
Keith Allred is a partner at the Cicero Group, a 200-person leading strategy consulting and market research firm based in Salt Lake City and is also the founder and a director of The Common Interest, a citizens’ group of more than 1,700 Republicans, Democrats, and independents. In 2014, he founded Common Sense PAC with top Idaho business leaders and retired Republican lawmakers. Within Idaho, Mr. Allred is notable for being the 2010 Democratic candidate for Governor of Idaho. Mr. Allred has also served as a professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Oxford’s Said School of Business, and at Columbia University, he holds a PhD in Organizational Behavior from the Anderson School of Management at UCLA and BA in American History from Stanford University.
Laurel Sayer currently serves as Executive Director of the Idaho Coalition of Land Trusts and also serves on the Idaho Non-profit Center Board of Directors. Previously, Ms. Sayer spent more than two decades working with the Idaho congressional delegation, most recently in Idaho as the director of natural resource issues and policy for Congressman Mike Simpson. Ms. Sayer served on the Greater Idaho Falls Chamber of Commerce from 2003 to 2009, including serving as chair from 2007 to 2008. She was appointed by Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter to the Idaho Commission on the Arts, and served as vice-chair from 1999 to 2014, and also served as chair and vice-chair of the Idaho Falls Arts Council from 1999 to 2012. Ms. Sayer has developed substantial expertise in building consensus amidst diverse opinions and political ideologies of key stakeholders in a variety of situations, successfully creating meaningful relationships with local, state, regional and federal government agencies.
Midas Gold, Inc. Board of Directors
Midas Gold, Inc. is an Idaho-registered company with a board of six directors and a dedicated workforce of US-based personnel working on the Stibnite Gold Project. Midas Gold has centralized its operations in Idaho, with its main office located in the Valley County town of Donnelly and a satellite office located in Boise, Idaho. A camp with a seasonal exploration office is maintained near the historic Stibnite town site. Investor Relations and corporate activities for Midas Gold Corp. will remain in the Vancouver, BC, office, in order to be closer to the capital markets.
“Midas Gold, Inc. has been established to serve as the Idaho-based entity to manage all of the Company’s affairs in Idaho going forward, including the Stibnite Gold Project; this will ensure the centralization of decision-making, accountability and representation in one organization,” said Mr. Quin. With Valley County residents forming a majority on the Midas Gold, Inc. Board of Directors, Midas Gold will continue to be an integral part of that community. “We believe that, with five years of good practice, we have established ourselves as good neighbors who have demonstrated our focus on protecting the environment, promoting safe working practices, hiring and contracting locally where possible, and participating in and contributing to community life,” said Mr. Quin. “The Board composition is one more demonstration of our commitment to ensuring accountability through community oversight, input, and representation.”
Don Bailey was first elected as a member of McCall City Council in 2005, where he served four terms over the following eight years, including two terms as Mayor from 2010 until his retirement in 2014. Mr. Bailey also served as Chairman of the McCall Planning and Zoning Commission from 2000 to 2005. Mr. Bailey was raised in the small mining community of Stibnite, where his father, Harold D. Bailey, was the company manager that designed the still-existing East Fork diversion tunnel known as the “Bailey Tunnel” at the Stibnite Mine in the 1930s. Mr. Bailey completed primary grades at the Stibnite elementary school before the family moved to Southern California in 1951. After retiring from an aerospace company in Burbank, California, where he served as Chief Engineer and Manager of Advanced Development, Mr. Bailey and his family returned to Idaho in 1996, where they designed and built the home in McCall that they still live in today. Mr. Bailey continues to be very active in the community of McCall and throughout Valley County, and is a founding member of the Valley County Economic Development Council, which is dedicated to creating an environment conducive to starting and attracting new businesses to the County and to strengthening existing businesses in order to enhance economic development in the County.
Frank Eld served two terms as a Valley County Commissioner and currently, he represents Valley County on the Central District Health Board and serves on the McCall-Donnelly School Board, a position he also held in the past, prior to becoming County Commissioner. As County Commissioner, Mr. Eld chaired the Valley-Adams Planning Partnership that encouraged economic development in the area, spearheaded Valley County’s efforts in building affordable housing for citizens, and was instrumental in the establishment of the bus service that now provides affordable transportation for Valley and Adams counties. Mr. Eld also helped establish the Long Valley Preservation Society and Museum and is a published expert on Finnish log construction; he lives in the historic town of Roseberry, Idaho.
Scott Davenport is a McCall resident; he is a founding member of the Valley County Economic Development Council, and serves on the Cascade and McCall Chambers of Commerce as well as many community committees throughout Valley County. He has a vision to see the Valley County area become self-sufficient in producing electricity, food, housing, employment and an environment of healthy living. A graduate of the College of Idaho, and a former manager at J.R. Simplot Company, Mr. Davenport now owns three retail stores and operates several businesses in Valley County.
Ronn Julian was educated at the University of Wyoming, earning both a Bachelor of Science degree in 1969 and Master of Science degree in 1971 in Range Science. After spending the first few years of his career working at the Kemmerer Coal Mine near his hometown and family ranch in southwestern Wyoming, Mr. Julian spent more than three decades with the US Forest Service. From the mid-1970s to the early 1980s, he worked as a range conservationist and wildlife staff in the Shoshone National Forest, before attaining the rank of District Ranger in the Nebraska National Forest in 1982. In 1987, Mr. Julian moved to Cascade, Idaho to take on the role of District Ranger in the Boise National Forest, a position he held for the next 18 years until his retirement in 2005. Mr. Julian is very active in the community of Cascade and throughout Valley County, most recently serving as Cascade Community Ambassador for Midas Gold.
Kenneth Brunk holds a degree in Metallurgical Engineering from Michigan Technological University and throughout his career has conducted numerous feasibility studies and has been responsible for designing, constructing, staffing and operating multiple mining operations and improving process efficiencies around the world. Most recently, Mr. Brunk served as Chief Executive Officer of Midway Gold Corp. where he led Midway through the feasibility and construction of its Pan gold mine in Nevada. Prior to that, Mr. Brunk was Chief Operating Officer of Romarco Minerals, where he led Romarco through the feasibility study on its recently permitted Haile gold project. Mr. Brunk’s efforts aided in elevating Haile from a prospective exploration effort to a successful world-class mine development project. Previously, as Senior Vice President and Senior Technical Officer at Newmont Mining Corporation, a global mining enterprise, Mr. Brunk was responsible for all of the technical functions of the operating, mine planning, metallurgical development, projects, and engineering groups within Newmont on projects around the world.
Stibnite Gold Project
Midas Gold strongly believes in the importance of community involvement in all we do in Valley County and in Idaho. We have heard from the local community that the name ‘Stibnite’ is historically and locally important, reflecting the long and storied past of the area. The Stibnite area has been actively mined off and on since the 1920s; during the 1940s and early 1950s it was a major centre for mining of antimony and tungsten, minerals that were essential to the US efforts in World War II and the Korean War, with significant by-product gold. This production was so important that miners were exempt from service in the military during the war years and then Allied Commander-in-Chief Dwight Eisenhower personally thanked the miners for their critical contribution to the war effort. Many local families currently residing in Valley County have had parents and grandparents who lived and worked in the pioneering community of Stibnite that contributed so much to the development of Valley County; to this day, they proudly call themselves ‘Stibniters’. We have therefore agreed to prominently build ‘Stibnite’ into the name of our flagship project, adding ‘Gold’ to reflect the economic significance of this metal to the Project today; ‘Stibnite’ is also the mineral that contains all the antimony on the site.
“For the past several years, we have heard repeatedly from the local community that everyone knows the project location as ‘Stibnite’ and that calling a heavily disturbed brownfields mining site ‘Golden Meadows’ just doesn’t fit and does not at all reflect the history or situation of the site,” said Mr. Quin. “We listened and decided that the project name should incorporate ‘Stibnite’, to reflect both the well-known historic location and the main antimony mineral, and also ‘Gold’ to reflect the principal economic driver of the Stibnite Gold Project,” he said. “The Stibnite Gold Project name reflects the proud tradition of the project area and the promising future it holds.”
About Midas Gold
Midas Gold Corp., through its wholly owned subsidiaries Midas Gold, Inc. and Idaho Gold Resources, LLC, is focused on the exploration and, if warranted, development of deposits in the Stibnite-Yellow Pine district of central Idaho. The principal gold deposits identified to date within the Project are the Hangar Flats, West End and Yellow Pine deposits, all of which are associated with important structural corridors, as well as a mineral resource contained in historic tailings.
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements contained in this news release that are not historical facts are “forward-looking information” or “forward-looking statements” (collectively, “Forward-Looking Information”) within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation and the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward Looking Information includes, but is not limited to, disclosure regarding possible events, conditions or financial performance that is based on assumptions about future conditions and courses of action; and the timing of future activities on the Corporation’s properties. In certain cases, Forward-Looking Information can be identified by the use of words and phrases such as “future”, “advance”, “commitment”, “vision”, “scheduled”, “estimates”, “anticipates”, “potential” or “believes” or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results “may”, “could”, “would”, or “might” “occur” or “be achieved”. Forward-Looking Information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Corporation to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the Forward-Looking Information. Such risks and other factors include, among others, risks related to the availability of financing on commercially reasonable terms and the expected use of proceeds; operations and contractual obligations; the Corporation’s dependence on one mineral project; the nature of mineral exploration and mining and the uncertain commercial viability of certain mineral deposits; the Corporation’s lack of operating revenues; risks related to dependence on key personnel; and estimates used in financial statements proving to be incorrect; as well as those factors discussed in the Corporation’s public disclosure record. Although the Corporation has attempted to identify important factors that could affect the Corporation and may cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in Forward-Looking Information, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that Forward-Looking Information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on Forward-Looking Information. Except as required by law, the Corporation does not assume any obligation to release publicly any revisions to Forward-Looking Information contained in this news release to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.