Published on August 26, 2020
Midas Gold Idaho has worked long and hard to earn the trust of Idahoans and the many thousands of people who have invested in Midas Gold Corp, Midas Gold Idaho’s publicly traded parent company that is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (trading symbol: MAX) in Canada and OTCQX (trading symbol: MDRPF) in the U.S. Over the years, individual and institutional investors have put their trust in us to develop a project that can transform a brownfield site through redevelopment and restoration. We often hear that our team of dedicated professionals, our science-backed plan with a forward leaning vision to be a part of a solution for the environment and the world class mineral resource we’ve identified are what makes this project stand out for investors.
In 2016, we began a relationship with one of America’s leading investment firms, Paulson & Co. Over a series of transactions, Paulson provided C$82,102,500 of capital in exchange for notes that could be converted to common shares at prices of C$0.3541 and $0.4655. In addition, they also participated in a financing in 2019 and purchased 9,664,520 common shares.
Today, we reported that our relationship has matured and continues. Paulson & Co is converting the notes it held into shares and is becoming the largest shareholder of Midas Gold Corp. This will likely result in the majority of shares in Midas Gold Corp. being held in the United States.
In support of this team and this project, Paulson has decided to convert the notes they hold into shares. Along with common shares already owned, the total of common shares now owned by Paulson totals 209,357,324 representing 44.12% of Midas Gold Corp.’s outstanding common shares.
“Given the current positive outlook for the Company [Midas Gold Corp.], we believe that the conversion is in the best interests of the Company and its many stakeholders,” said Marcelo Kim, Partner of Paulson and the Chairman of the Board of Midas Gold Corp. “We believe this will better position the Company to achieve its long-term objective of developing the Stibnite Gold Project.”
The conversion of the notes will:
- Simplify the Company’s capital structure;
- Remove uncertainty related to the potential timing of the conversion of Paulson’s notes;
- Significantly reduce the long-term financial liability associated with the convertible notes; and
- Increase the issued capitalization of the Company, providing potential opportunities for inclusion in various equity market indexes.
Assuming the conversion, the following are the share percentages held on an issued and outstanding basis:
- Paulson & Co. 44%
- Retail and high net worth investors 26%*
- Institutional investors 15%*
- Barrick Gold 11%
- Teck and Vista 3%*
- Other 1%*
*percentages are approximate and based on publicly available share data
