Washington, D.C., April 20, 2010
—IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, has agreed to buy an additional equity stake worth 7.5 million Canadian dollars in Antares Minerals Inc. to continue its support for a copper exploration project expected to generate jobs and government revenues for Peru once the mine is developed.
IFC’s investment in Antares, a Canadian-based mining company, will help fund the company’s ongoing prefeasibility studies and environmental and social programs and assessments for the Antares’ Haquira project located in a remote part of the Apurimac region in southern Peru.
“We appreciate IFC’s support as a long-term equity partner and their flexibility in identifying innovative solutions to meet our financing needs,” said John Black, CEO of Antares Minerals. “This additional investment by IFC will enable us to aggressively proceed with prefeasibility and exploration drill programs at Haquira.”
The investment of 7.5 million Canadian dollars will be used for the early exercise of all of IFC’s current warrants. In exchange for the early exercise, IFC will receive half a new warrant for each warrant exercised. The investment will increase IFC’s shareholding in the company from 8% to almost 14%.
“Antares has made significant progress since IFC’s initial equity investment in July 2009, increasing the resource by 38 percent, and shows signs of becoming a significant new copper discovery,” said William Bulmer, IFC’s Global Head for Mining. “We are excited to strengthen our position as an equity partner in Antares, providing funding that will help the company to advance this project and contribute to the ongoing development of the mining sector in Peru.”
IFC’s strategy in Peru aims to promote sustainable development by supporting private sector projects in priority industries such as the financial sector, including microfinance, infrastructure, agribusiness, mining and tourism. IFC also helps enhance social benefits in the extractive industries and has extensive programs to help improve investment climate for local businesses.
Legal Disclosure about IFC's Investment
IFC’s agreement to exercise all of its currently outstanding warrants will result in IFC acquiring 3,750,000 common shares of Antares for an aggregate cost of $7,500,000 Canadian dollars. Each new warrant issued to IFC entitles IFC to acquire one common share of Antares at an exercise price of $3.00 Canadian dollars per common share at any time until July 22, 2014.
Based on the 60,579,891 common shares of Antares currently outstanding, and with the common shares of Antares already owned and controlled by IFC, IFC will own approximately 13.6 percent of the outstanding common shares upon completion of the transaction. Assuming the 1,875,000 new common share purchase warrants are exercised in full, IFC will own and control approximately 16 percent of the outstanding common shares of Antares.
IFC is acquiring the warrants for investment purposes as described above. IFC may, in the future, take such actions in respect of its holdings as IFC deems appropriate in light of the circumstances then existing.
To obtain a copy of the report filed with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities in respect of which this news release relates, please contact Josef Skoldeberg at the phone number or e-mail address referred to above. IFC’s headquarters are located at 2121 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C., 20433, U.S.A.
About IFC
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, creates opportunity for people to escape poverty and improve their lives. We foster sustainable economic growth in developing countries by supporting private sector development, mobilizing capital for private enterprise, and providing advisory and risk mitigation services to businesses and governments. Our new investments totaled $14.5 billion in fiscal 2009, helping channel capital into developing countries during the financial crisis. For more information, visit
www.ifc.org
.
