News Release

Vancouver - The British Columbia Securities Commission will offer mining companies the ability to apply for an advance review of their technical disclosure beginning Sept. 1, 2009 in order to facilitate the timely receipt of a short-form prospectus.

The BCSC is introducing this new review service to assist mining issuers planning an offering under NI 44-101 Short Form Prospectus Distributions to identify technical disclosure and filing issues outside the time pressures of an offering. The purpose of a
pre-prospectus review is to identify any potential issues that may delay the final receipt of a prospectus.

“We recognize that short-form prospectus offerings are often done under tight deadlines,” said Martin Eady, BCSC director, corporate finance. “This streamlined review process should help issuers close their financing and make a distribution with minimal delays.”

After receiving an application from a mining issuer, BCSC staff will commence a review of technical disclosure filed on SEDAR for compliance with NI 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. The review will usually include the latest annual information form (AIF), most recent technical reports for the issuer’s material properties, news releases, and material change reports.
 
To request a review an issuer must give at least 10 days written notice prior to the date it expects to file its preliminary short-form prospectus. The request should be addressed to Robert Holland, the BCSC’s chief mining advisor, and e-mailed to: review.request@bcsc.bc.ca. There is no charge for this service.

The B.C. Securities Commission is the independent provincial government agency responsible for regulating trading in securities within the province. You may view the notice, which includes a question and answer document, on our website www.bcsc.bc.ca. If you have questions, contact Ken Gracey, media relations, 604-899-6577.

Learn how to avoid investment fraud at the BCSC's investor education website: www.investright.org.