SPOKANE, WA, Aug. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Minera Andes Inc. (TSX: MAI and US OTC: MNEAF) is pleased to announce that Mr. Rob McEwen, chairman and CEO of U.S. Gold (TSX and AMEX: UXG) will join the board of Minera Andes along with two other independent mining industry executives. Mr. McEwen holds approximately 24% of Minera Andes' shares.
Allen V. Ambrose, president of Minera Andes said "I am pleased to welcome Rob McEwen, Victor Lazarovici and Don Quick to the Minera Andes' board." Mr. Victor Lazarovici is a recently retired senior base metals and minerals analyst and Dr. Quick is a former director of Goldcorp Inc."
The new board members replace retiring members Messrs. John J. "Jack" Crabb, Gary A. Craig and Ms. Bonnie Kuhn. Ms. Kuhn will continue as corporate secretary and legal counsel for Minera Andes.
Mr. Ambrose said "I am very grateful to these long-time board members whose expertise guided Minera Andes from an early-stage exploration company to an emerging gold/silver production company with excellent prospects for growth."
Mr. McEwen is a recipient of the Order of Canada, Canada's highest civilian honor. A leading Canadian mining industry entrepreneur, with active exploration underway in Nevada and Mexico, Mr. McEwen was the founder, former chairman and CEO of Goldcorp Inc., which he built from an investment company with a $50 million market capitalization to one of the largest gold-mining companies in the world with an $8 billion market capitalization by the time he retired from the company. His achievements in natural resources have been recognized with such honors as the Northern Miner's Man of the Year Award; Ernst & Young's Ontario Entrepreneur of the Year in the Energy Category; and the Developer of the Year Award from the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada.
Mr. Lazarovici was managing director and senior base metals and minerals analyst for BMO Capital Markets in New York for ten years. He has more than 20 years experience as a highly ranked global metals and mining analyst, including five years at Smith Barney in New York, and prior broad experience in the corporate and investment management sectors. While at BMO and Smith Barney, Mr. Lazarovici consistently achieved top analyst rankings among U.S. and Canadian institutional investors. At BMO, he was the only analyst to achieve top ranking in both U.S. and Canadian surveys. At BMO and Smith Barney Mr. Lazarovici was recognized for "stock picking" and earnings accuracy by Wall Street Journal and Forbes.com.
Dr. Quick, a private investor, served as a Goldcorp director from 2000 to 2006, and previously was a director of CSA Management, which he helped to successfully merge with Goldcorp in 2000. As a director of Goldcorp, he was involved with three successful mining industry mergers including Goldcorp's $2.6 billion merger with Wheaton River; the combined Goldcorp/Barrick Gold Corp. acquisition of Placer Dome Inc.; and the $8.6 billion merger of Glamis Gold Inc. into Goldcorp. The latter two transactions were the largest gold mining deals in Canadian history.
Mr. Ambrose said "I look forward to the contributions of these new, highly experienced board members as Minera Andes grows, diversifies into copper and uses its ongoing income to create new asset value and market awareness."
Minera Andes is a gold, silver and copper exploration company working in Argentina. The Company holds about 304,000 acres of mineral exploration land in Argentina including the 49% owned San Jose silver/gold mine that commenced production last year. Minera Andes is also exploring the Los Azules copper project in San Juan province, where an exploration program is underway to define a resource and scoping study. Other exploration properties, primarily silver and gold, are being evaluated in southern Argentina. The Corporation presently has 189,456,935 shares issued and outstanding.
This news is submitted by Allen V. Ambrose, President and Director of Minera Andes Inc.
Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements:
This press release contains certain "forward-looking statements", including, but not limited to, the statements regarding the Company's strategic plans, evolution of mineral resources and reserves, work programs, development plans and exploration budgets at the Company's San Jose Project. The forward-looking statements express, as at the date of this press release, the Company's plans, estimates, forecasts, projections, expectations or beliefs as to future events and results. Forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties, and there can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate. Therefore, actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. In particular, there can be no assurance that production capacity at the San Jose mine will be successfully increased, or that resources and reserves at the San Jose mine will be increased. Risks and uncertainties that could cause results or future events to differ materially from current expectations expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, factors associated with fluctuations in the market price of precious metals, mining industry risks, risks associated with foreign operations, the state of the capital markets, environmental risks and hazards, uncertainty as to calculation of mineral reserves and other risks. We refer readers to the risk factors and uncertainties described in the Company's continuous disclosure record, a copy of which is available under the Company's profile at http://www.sedar.com/. Minera Andes' joint venture partner, a subsidiary of Hochschild Mining plc, and its affiliates do not accept responsibility for the use of project data or the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Cautionary Note to U.S. Investors:
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") permits mining companies, in their filings with the SEC, to disclose only those mineral deposits with "mineral reserves" that a company can economically and legally extract or produce. We use certain terms in this press release, such as "mineral resources", that the SEC guidelines strictly prohibit us from including in our filings with the SEC, because these terms are common usage in Canada and form part of our Canadian filing requirements.
