Ireland Inc. to Acquire Mineral Properties
Tuesday April 3, 9:00 am ET
BLAINE, WA--(MARKET WIRE)--Apr 3, 2007 -- Ireland Inc. (OTC BB:IREL.OB - News) (the "Company") announced today that it has entered into an assignment agreement dated March 29, 2007 (the "Assignment Agreement') with Nanominerals Corp. ("Nano") of Las Vegas, Nevada. Under the terms of the Assignment Agreement, Nano will assign to the Company its options to acquire up to 100% of two mineral properties, the Columbus Project located in Esmeralda County, Nevada and the Red Mountain Project located in San Bernardino County, California.
The Columbus Project is a placer mining project consisting of 149 mineral and mill site claims covering 19,737.98 acres over the Columbus Salt Marsh in Esmeralda County, NV. The project also consists of 80 acres of private land in the area. Over 5 years of work by the claim owners has outlined significant occurrences of calcium carbonate, gold and silver within the claim block. The region has produced significant silver (Candelaria) from hardrock.
Under the terms of an agreement dated July 22, 2006 (the "Columbus Agreement"), Nano acquired options (the "Columbus Options") to acquire up to 100% interest in the Columbus Project as follows:
a. an option to acquire up to a 15% interest in the Columbus Project by
expending up to $3,000,000 on exploration, testing, development, permitting
and related expenses by December 31, 2007, and
b. subject to completion of the $3,000,000 expenditure described above an
option to acquire the remaining 85% of the Columbus Project by way of a
statutory merger with the owner of the 85% interest in the project based on
an agreed stock price valuation formula.
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To date Nano has expended in excess of $500,000 on the Columbus Project.
At Closing of the Assignment Agreement Nano will assign its interest in the Columbus Options to the Company. Under the terms of the Columbus Agreement Nano has the right to assign its interest to the Company.
The Red Mountain Project is a placer mining project consisting of 60 mineral claims covering 8170 acres in the Red Mountain area of San Bernardino, California. Work on the claims over the last 15 years has outlined significant occurrences of gold, silver and tungsten within four separate claim blocks. Significant gold, silver and tungsten have been produced from hardrock mines in the region and the Red Mountain Project covers placer accumulations believed to be derived from the same mineral deposits.
Under the terms of an agreement dated March 15, 2007 (the "Red Mountain Agreement"), Nano acquired Options (the "Red Mountain Options") to acquire up to 100% interest in the Red Mountain Project as follows:
a. an option to earn up to 60% interest in the Red Mountain Project by
expending up to $1,200,000 by December 31, 2011; and
b. an option to acquire 100% of the Red Mountain Project at any time by
paying $4,000,000 to acquire all the assets and liabilities of Red Mountain
Mining, the owner of the Red Mountain Project, which sum may be paid in
either cash or in shares of common stock based on an agreed stock price
valuation formula.
At closing of the Assignment Agreement, Nano will assign its interests in the Red Mountain Options to the Company. Under the terms of the Red Mountain Agreement, Nano has the right to assign its interest to the Company.
The consideration for the assignment of the Columbus Options and the Red Mountain Options by Nano will be as follows:
1. the issuance of a total of 7,500,000 restricted shares of the Company
to Nano and its business associates.
2. the issuance of $5,000,000 of promissory notes payable to Nano as
follows:
i. $500,000 within 60 days of closing;
ii. $1,500,000 on July 31, 2008; and
iii. $3,000,000 on July 31, 2009.
3. the grant to Nano of a royalty of 5% of net smelter returns from the
Columbus and Red Mountain Projects.
4. the Company assuming the obligations of Nano under the Columbus
Agreement and the Red Mountain Agreement, and agreeing to reimburse Nano
for expenditures made on the Columbus Project since January 1, 2007 and to
reimburse Nano for expenditures on the Red Mountain Project from the date
of the Assignment Agreement to Closing.
In addition to the consideration described above, Lorrie Archibald, the President, a director and principal shareholder of the Company has agreed to transfer 4,550,000 shares of the Company held by her to Nano.
Closing is subject to a number of conditions including, in addition to customary due diligence requirements, the company negotiating an agreement with Nano for the provision of technical support on the Columbus Project and the appointment of Douglas Birnie as President and a director of the Company. Closing is expected to take place on or before June 30, 2007.
Pending closing, Mr. Birnie has agreed to serve as Secretary of the Company and Mr. Robert McDougal has agreed to serve as Chief Financial Officer of the Company. Mr. Christian Rommel has resigned as Secretary of the Company to make room for the appointment of Mr. Birnie.
Douglas D.G. Birnie graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of British Columbia (Canada) in 1994. In 1995, Mr. Birnie was a founder of Columbus Group Communications Inc., a privately held Canadian Corporation. In 1998, Mr. Birnie received the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year award and the Business Development Bank of Canada Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. During his tenure at Columbus Group, Mr. Birnie held the positions CFO and COO until the company was acquired by TELUS Corp. in 2001. Mr. Birnie continued to work for TELUS Corp. as Director - Strategic Planning within the e.Solutions department until 2003.
Mr. McDougal is a Certified Public Accountant. He began practicing public accounting in 1973 and established his own practice in 1981. The major portion of the practice is with mining and mining related clients including public companies, private companies' partnerships and individuals. He was a Director and Officer of GEXA Gold Corporation, a publicly traded mining company, from 1985 to 2001. Mr. McDougal was one of the founders of Millennium Mining Corporation which has been merged into Gold Summit Corporation, a publicly traded company. He is the managing partner of GM Squared, LLC, which holds numerous mining claims. He served on the Nevada Society of Certified Public Accountants Committee on Natural Resources for seven years, four years as chairman. Prior to this time Mr. McDougal spend 20 years in the United States Air Force, retiring with the rank of Major. Mr. McDougal is presently a director of Searchlight Minerals Corp.
The Company has also agreed to grant options to purchase a total of 925,000 common shares of the Company at a price of $0.20 per share for a period of two years to officers and consultants to the Company including 550,000 to Mr. Birnie and 125,000 to Mr. McDougal.
Statements in this news release that are forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties concerning the specific factors disclosed under the heading "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in the Company's periodic filings with US securities regulators. When used in this news release, the words such as "could," "plan," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "potential," "should," and similar expressions, are forward-looking statements. The risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from these forward-looking statements include, but are not restricted to the Company's limited operating history, uncertainties about the availability of additional financing, geological or mechanical difficulties affecting the Company's planned geological work programs, uncertainty of estimates of mineralized material, operational risk, environmental risk, financial risk, currency risk, dependence on joint venture partners and other statements that are not historical facts as disclosed under the heading "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in the Company's periodic filings with securities regulators in the United States.
IRELAND INC.
Lorrie Archibald
Director and President
Contact:
Contact:
IRELAND INC.
810 Peace Portal Drive, #201
Blaine, WA 98230
TELEPHONE: (360) 318-3020
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Source: Ireland Inc.
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