NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The family trusts which are the owners of the Electrum Group of Companies are implementing the next stage of their policy with regard to lifetime charitable giving, one which will result in providing increased financial support to certain recipients to which the beneficiaries have made significant charitable commitments. This policy will be applied broadly across the Group’s portfolio and will result in distributions of shares which are today publicly traded and which are expected to be publicly traded and, where applicable and appropriate, private equity holdings.
Accordingly, the Electrum Group of Companies today announced that it intends to make monthly transfers of shares in public entities owned by members of the Electrum Group. Transfers will be made to charitable organizations, including Panthera Corporation (see website: http://www.panthera.org), The 92nd Street Y (see website: http://www.92y.org), and The Recanati-Kaplan Foundation, a charitable organization focused on supporting organizations that encourage and promote, inter alia, environmental sustainability, wildlife conservation, education, science and medical research. The Electrum Group may also transfer a portion of such shares to certain affiliates of the Electrum Group and to employees of and service providers to certain affiliates of the Electrum Group.
Members of the Electrum Group are the largest shareholders of NovaGold Resources Inc. (“NovaGold”) and Gabriel Resources Ltd. (“Gabriel”), owning 51,916,412 shares of NovaGold and 61,420,739 shares of Gabriel, respectively. The size of transfers to the charities involved are not expected to exceed 1,000,000 shares of each issuer per month, which represents an insignificant percentage of each company’s market capitalization and monthly trading volume.
In addition, the Group holds substantial positions in a number of other publicly traded Canadian-listed companies. In due course, it is expected that this newly-implemented policy on charitable giving will be applied to the other members of the Group which are publicly traded or which are expected to become publicly traded.
In order to maintain the level of its shareholdings following such distributions, members of the Group will likely, where applicable, exercise warrants with which they may maintain their shareholdings. In the case of NovaGold, Electrum Strategic Resources LLC intends to exercise warrants from time to time. In the event such warrants are exercised and common shares underlying such warrants are received, in order to comply with appropriate regulatory constraints on increasing its ownership of common shares of NovaGold, Electrum Strategic Resources may sell a number of NovaGold shares such that, after the foregoing transfers and warrant exercises, the number of NovaGold shares held by Electrum Strategic Resources will remain unchanged.
In certain circumstances, the securities rules and regulations of applicable Canadian and other regulatory authorities require a transferee of shares to publicly file various notices with respect to proposed trades in securities. The applicable member of the Electrum Group will make such filings as and when required by such rules and regulations.
The Electrum Group may at any time without notice decide to accelerate, delay or cease the program described in this press release.
About the Electrum Group of Companies:
The privately-held Electrum Group of Companies is involved in precious metals exploration and development around the world. Members of the Electrum Group include Electrum Ltd., which holds one of the world's largest and most diversified exploration portfolios with a global portfolio of over 90 properties comprising over 1.8 million hectares in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe; Electrum Strategic Holdings LLC, which owns a strategic stake in Gabriel Resources Ltd., the owner of 80.5% of the Rosia Montana gold project in Romania; Electrum Strategic Resources LLC, which owns a substantial interest in NovaGold Resources Inc., which owns a 50% interest in the Donlin Creek gold deposit in Southwest Alaska and a 50% interest in the Galore Creek copper/gold/silver deposit in British Columbia; Electrum Strategic Exploration Ltd., which owns a strategic stake in Taung Gold Limited, a company with major interests in gold exploration and development projects in the Witwatersrand District of South Africa; Sunshine Silver Mines Corporation, the owner of the historic Sunshine Mine located in the Idaho Silver Valley as well as significant silver properties in Central America; Electrum Strategic Acquisitions LLC, the owner of a significant interest in Sunward Resources Ltd., a company focused on the exploration of gold/copper porphyry projects in Columbia; and Electrum USA Ltd., headquartered in Denver, Colorado, which manages the Electrum Group's exploration and development activities.