Vancouver, Washington, USA – June 3, 2013 – Aston Bay Holdings Ltd. (TSX-V: BAY) (“Aston Bay” or the “Company”) announces that as a result of a review by the British Columbia Securities Commission (the “Commission”), it is issuing the following news release to clarify certain material deficiencies in the Company’s technical disclosure and non-compliant and misleading disclosure on its website and in investor materials.
The Company has been placed on the Commission’s Issuers in Default list and will continue to be on this list until material deficiencies have been resolved to the satisfaction of the Commission.
The Company has completed a review of technical disclosure contained on the Company’s Website prior to May 21, 2013 (the “Website”) and the May 2013 Corporate Presentation entitled “High Grade Copper & Zinc” (the “Presentation”) disseminated and provided on the Website prior to May 21, 2013, and wishes to clarify and retract certain disclosures relating to its Storm Copper and Seal Zinc projects in Nunavut, Canada.
In particular, the following statements used on the Website and/or in the Presentation have been amended or removed and are being retracted by the Company:
The Seal Zinc Deposit
Aston Bay previously reported a non-compliant historical Zinc resource without cautionary language required by s.2.4(g) of NI 43-101 and referred to the non-compliant historical resource as an “ore body”, a term conferring current economic viability, thereby treating the estimate as a current mineral reserve. Aston Bay also used the words “resource”, “ore body” in reference to a silver-zinc deposit, “ore”, “gravel deposit”, and “world class assets” without technical basis, on the Website and in the Presentation. The Company retracts and has removed from its Website and from the Presentation all references to this non-compliant historical resource and other improperly used terms and retracts all these references, statements and terms with reference to the subject zones.
Statements in the Presentation disclosing gross in situ metal value on a per unit basis for the Seal Zinc project and statements regarding “raw rock value”, a “deposit” and development with “reasonable capex”, thereby implying the quantity has potential economic viability and treating it as a current resource or reserve estimate, have been removed from the Presentation and are retracted by the Company. The Company is retracting the use of gross metal values because they are restricted by NI 43-101 in that they fail to take into consideration operating and capital costs, recoveries, smelter costs and other factors relating to mining, extraction and recovery of metals. The Company also clarifies that use of the term “BCM” contained in the Presentation was not appropriate for an in-situ deposit as it was not supported by a resource.
Retraction of gravel deposit disclosure
The Company does not have a gravel resource or any results of an economic analysis of gravel and, as such, all prior statements or disclosure relating to or inferring a gravel deposit, resource or “ore body” in reference to a gravel deposit are retracted by the Company and have been removed from the Website and from the Presentation.
The Storm Copper Deposit
The Storm Copper section of the Website previously made reference to “mineable surface resource” and “contained metal.” The Presentation disclosed similar information in that it disclosed an “historical grade range” and an “average grade” for the “open pit copper district”. The Company has removed all references to these statements in the Website and in the Presentation and retracts prior disclosure of current or historical resource estimates at Storm. The Company is retracting these statements because there is not enough technical data to estimate a resource at Storm. The Company retracts any suggestion or inference of a current resource estimate. In the event the Company receives a material resource estimate, it will promptly announce the results and file a supporting technical report.
The Presentation referred to “resource expansion possibilities”, which could be inferred as fixed quantity with a resource designation and cut-off and, thus, disclosure of a current resource. This disclosure was not compliant with section 2.3(2) of NI 43-101. The Company has removed all references to these statements and retracts the disclosure because the 2012 Technical Report (as referred to below) does not support a current resource estimate on the Storm Copper property.
A May 6, 2013 publicly disseminated news release uses the term “ore” in reference to the Storm Copper Project. Consequently, it also implies the existence of current resources or reserves. The Company retracts all prior references to, and statements containing, the term “ore” in the May 6, 2013 news release.
For greater clarity, the NI 43-101 Technical Report on The Exploration History And Current Status of the Storm Project, Somerset Island, Nunavut (October 31, 2012), prepared by Jim Robinson, B.Sc., P. Geol. with Aurora Geosciences Ltd., and Bryan Atkinson, B.Sc., P. Geol. with APEX Geoscience Ltd. (the “2012 Technical Report”) is the current technical report with respect to the Company’s interests in the Storm-Seal property and contains all current material scientific and technical information about the property. Any prior references by the Company to scientific or technical information contained in a technical report other than the 2012 Technical Report was made in error, is retracted by the Company and investors should not rely on any such prior disclosure or statements made by the Company or by its now wholly-owned subsidiary, Aston Bay Ventures Ltd. The Company intends to have the 2012 Technical Report revised to reflect that Mr. Robinson is the sole author of the Technical Report. The revised Technical Report will be filed with the Commission on or before July 2, 2013.
The Company has also identified the Qualified Person responsible for the preparation or supervision of the technical information in the Presentation and the Website as requested by the Commission and as required by NI 43-101. Michael Dufresne, M.Sc., P.Geol., a consultant to and the Chief Geologist of the Company, is the Qualified Person who prepares or supervises the preparation of or approves disclosure of technical information by the Company. Mr. Dufresne is the President and Principle of APEX Geoscience Ltd., which contracts its services to the Company. Mr. Dufresne is also an insider of the Company and directly or indirectly holds or controls over 10% of the shares of the Company.
The Company has removed the Presentation from the Website. It has also revised the Presentation based on revisions and retractions disclosed herein, which revised corporate presentation is available for viewing by investors on the Company’s Website.
About Aston Bay Holdings Ltd.
Aston Bay Holdings Ltd. is a Canadian copper and zinc exploration Company advancing the Storm Copper and Seal Zinc projects on Somerset Island, Nunavut.
Aston Bay may earn up to a 70% interest in both projects, in accordance with an Option and Earn-In Agreement signed in 2011 between its wholly owned subsidiary, Aston Bay Ventures Ltd., and Commander Resources Ltd. (TSX-V: CMD). An experienced team leads the Company with diverse backgrounds in geology and finance.
The content of this news release and the Company’s technical disclosure has been prepared under the supervision of Michael Dufresne, M.Sc., P.Geol., who is the Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101.
On behalf of the Board of Directors
Benjamin Cox, Chief Executive Officer
Telephone: (360) 262-6969
For further information about Aston Bay Holdings Ltd or this news release, please visit our website at https://astonbayholdings.com.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange Inc. nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
This news release contains certain statements that may be deemed “forward-looking statements”. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words “expects”, “plans”, “anticipates”, “believes”, “intends”, “estimates”, “projects”, “potential” and similar expressions, or that events or conditions “will”, “would”, “may”, “could” or “should” occur. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company’s management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management’s beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.