SEABRIDGE AND PRETIUM SIGN AGREEMENTS ON COOPERATION
Monday, 9th May 2011
Toronto, Canada - Seabridge Gold announced today it has executed two agreements with Pretium Resources Inc. to: (1) establish the terms under which mining operations at one project can encroach on the other's boundaries; and (2) explore the potential for joint development of Seabridge's KSM project and Pretium's Snowfield project which together represent the largest undeveloped gold resource in North America.
Mutual Access Agreement
The KSM and Snowfield projects have a common boundary and neither can be mined to its maximum extent without encroaching on the other's land position. A Mutual Access Agreement has therefore been signed which includes provisions for, amongst other things:
With the Mutual Access Agreement in hand, each of Seabridge and Pretium can continue with plans to optimize the mining at each of their respective projects independently.
Mutual Cooperation and Confidentiality Agreement
A Mutual Cooperation and Confidentiality Agreement has been signed that provides for, amongst standard provisions, the preparation of an engineering study to examine the economics of combining Seabridge's KSM project and Pretium's Snowfield project as a single operation. The study is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of this year. Seabridge will have responsibility for managing the study under the direction of Jay Layman, its Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Prior to joining Seabridge in March of this year, Mr. Layman was Vice President Solutions and Innovation for Newmont Mining Company where he was responsible for managing Global Technical Services.
Seabridge President and CEO Rudi Fronk noted that "our agreements with Pretium represent the kind of co-operation that is needed from the owners of two major projects which border on each other. These agreements will enable Seabridge to carry out the stripping operations on Pretium's ground that would be required under our Preliminary Feasibility Study and examine whether overall economics can be improved if we combine the KSM and Snowfield projects."
On May 2, 2011 Seabridge released a new Preliminary Feasibility Study which confirms that KSM is a robust stand-alone 52 year mine life project with operating and total costs per ounce well below the current average of the major gold producers (see https://www.seabridgegold.net/news.php). Mineral reserves at KSM are estimated as follows:
The updated KSM Preliminary Feasibility Study was prepared by Wardrop, A Tetra Tech Company, and incorporates the work of a number of industry-leading consulting firms.
Seabridge holds a 100% interest in several North American gold resource projects. The Company's principal assets are the KSM property located near Stewart, British Columbia, Canada and the Courageous Lake gold project located in Canada's Northwest Territories. For a breakdown of Seabridge's mineral reserves and resources by project and category please visit the Company's website at https://seabridgegold.net/News/Article/323/seabridge-and-pretium-sign-agreements-on-cooperation