Wealth Strengthens Board and Team with New Appointments, Arranges $266,060 Loan, Amends Previous Loans and Grants Stock Options
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 15, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wealth Minerals Ltd. (the “Company” or “Wealth”) - (TSXV: WML; OTCQX: WMLLF; SSE: WMLCL; Frankfurt: EJZN), is pleased to announce it has strengthened its board of directors with the appointment of David Lies as a Director. The Company also announces the appointment of Kenneth Strong as its Senior Advisor of Sustainability.
“Mr. Lies is an exceptional and highly respected businessman with a proven background in guiding companies’ growth. His experience is a valuable addition to Wealth as we prepare to ramp up the development of our mineral assets,” stated Wealth’s CEO, Henk van Alphen, “we are very excited to have him join our team as a Director and I look forward to working with him.” Mr. van Alphen continued: “Bringing Mr. Strong onto the team will be a great addition to our dialogue with local communities in Chile, due to his experience working with indigenous groups and other stakeholders of natural resource projects. His father, Maurice Strong, was a director of Wealth in the past, and Mr. Strong follows in his father’s footsteps by leading Wealth’s sustainable natural resource development.”
David Lies Background
Mr. Lies is an entrepreneur and private equity investor with a focus on the real estate and manufacturing sectors for over 40 years. From being an executive in the real estate division of Inland Steel Development Corporation, Mr. Lies led the leveraged buyout of the division and managed its operations for over 30 years with multiple developments and projects. In private equity, Mr. Lies organized the buyout of Ryco Graphics, an industrial equipment company, managed a business’ turnaround by tripling revenues and substantially increasing profits, and finally exited from the investment in five years. Presently, Mr. Lies manages a portfolio of high growth potential companies across several sectors including the natural resource space.
Kenneth Strong Background
Mr. Strong has a multi-decade career focused on connecting capital markets with global resource sustainability. He is a founding Managing Partner of Global Acceleration Partners, Inc., a company dedicated to effecting the cross-border transfer and deployment of clean technology into emerging economies, particularly China. He has also served as Chairman and CEO of Technology Development Corp. and Environmental Capital Corp., where Mr. Strong led the creation and development of clean-tech enterprises dedicated to commercializing technology from research institutions such as MIT and Harvard Medical School. Early in his career, Mr. Strong served as Special Assistant to the Prime Minister of Canada.
Importantly, Mr. Strong is committed to continue the legacy of his father, The Hon. Maurice Strong, long considered to be a global leader in sustainable development, who passed in 2015. Maurice Strong served six times as Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, as Secretary General of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, in various capacities at the World Resources Institute, the International Institute for Sustainable Development, the Stockholm Environment Institute, the World Economic Forum, the World Bank and the World Wildlife Fund, as well as having served as Chairman and CEO of Ontario Hydro and founding Chairman of Petro Canada. Maurice Strong was a director of Wealth from December 2006 to November 2015.
Wealth Loans
Wealth also announces that, subject to TSX Venture Exchange (“TSXV”) acceptance, the Company has secured loans in the aggregate amount of $266,060 (the “June Loans”) with certain arm’s length lenders (the “Lenders”). The June Loans have an 18-month term and bear interest at a rate of 8% per annum compounded annually, payable on the maturity date. The Company has agreed to issue in aggregate 665,150 non-transferable bonus common share purchase warrants (each, a “Bonus Warrant”) to the Lenders. Each Bonus Warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one common share in the capital of the Company at an exercise price of $0.40 per share for a period of two years. All securities issued pursuant to the June Loans will be subject to a hold period of four months and one day in Canada from the date of issuance. The funds available from the June Loans will be used for general working capital and to make property payments on the Company’s Atacama lithium project (“Atacama” or the “Atacama Project”).
Additionally, Wealth announces that, subject to TSXV acceptance, it plans to amend the terms (the “Loan Amendments”) of certain loan agreements entered into by the Company with various lenders in February (the “February Loans”) and March 2019 (together with the February Loans, the “Prior Loans”). Pursuant to the Loan Amendments, the term of the Prior Loans will be extended such that each Prior Loan will have a maturity date that is 18 months from the closing date of such Prior Loan. In connection with the Loan Amendments, the Company intends to make an application to the TSXV to extend the expiry date of the bonus warrants issued to the lenders under the February Loan from one year after the date of issuance to two years after the date of issuance (the “Amended Bonus Warrants”).
For more information on the Prior Loans, please see the Company’s news releases dated February 11, 2019, March 6, 2019 and March 29, 2019.
None of the foregoing securities have been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “1933 Act”) or any applicable state securities laws and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons (as defined in Regulation S under the 1933 Act) or persons in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from such registration requirements. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor will there be any sale of the foregoing securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.
Stock Option Grant
The Company also announces that, pursuant to its 2004 Incentive Stock Option Plan, it has granted incentive stock options (the “Options”) to directors, officers, employees and consultants of the Company and its affiliates to purchase up to an aggregate of 9,375,000 common shares in the capital stock of the Company. The options are exercisable on or before July 12, 2021 at a price of $0.40 per share.
About Wealth Minerals Ltd.
Wealth is a mineral resource company with interests in Canada, Mexico, Peru and Chile. The Company’s main focus is the acquisition and development of lithium projects in South America. To date, the Company has positioned itself to develop the Atacama Project alongside existing producers in the prolific Atacama region, where the Company has a substantial licenses package. The Company has also positioned itself to play a role in asset consolidation in Chile with various lithium properties throughout the country.
Lithium market dynamics and a rapidly increasing metal price are the result of profound structural issues with the industry meeting anticipated future demand. Wealth is positioning itself to be a major beneficiary of this future mismatch of supply and demand. The Company also maintains and continues to evaluate a portfolio of precious and base metal exploration-stage projects.
For further details on the Company readers are referred to the Company’s website (www.wealthminerals.com) and its Canadian regulatory filings on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.
On Behalf of the Board of Directors of
WEALTH MINERALS LTD.
“Hendrik van Alphen”
Hendrik van Alphen
Chief Executive Officer
For further information, please contact:
Marla Ritchie/Henk van Alphen or Tim McCutcheon
Phone: 604-331-0096
E-mail: info@wealthminerals.com
Neither TSX Venture Exchange 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 news release.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, “forward-looking statements”) within the meaning of applicable Canadian and U.S. securities legislation, including the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation, the receipt by the Company and the amount of the proceeds from the Loans, anticipated exploration program results from exploration activities, the Company’s expectation that it will be able to enter into agreements to acquire interests in additional mineral properties, the discovery and delineation of mineral deposits/resources/reserves, the advisory services to be provided by Mr. Strong, the exercise of the Options, and the anticipated business plans and timing of future activities of the Company, including the development of the Company’s mineral assets, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as: “will”, “believe”, “expect”, “anticipate”, “intend”, “estimate”, “postulate” and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. In making the forward-looking statements in this news release, the Company has applied several material assumptions, including without limitation, that market fundamentals will result in sustained lithium demand and prices, the receipt of any necessary permits, licenses and regulatory approvals in connection with the June Loans, the Bonus Warrants, the Amended Bonus Warrants, the Loan Amendments and future development of the Company’s mineral assets, including the Company’s Chilean lithium projects in a timely manner, the availability of financing on suitable terms for the development, construction and continued operation of the Company projects, and the Company’s ability to comply with environmental, health and safety laws.
The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking statements by the Company are not guarantees of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including, operating and technical difficulties in connection with mineral exploration and development activities, actual results of exploration activities, the estimation or realization of mineral reserves and mineral resources, the timing and amount of estimated future production, the costs of production, capital expenditures, the costs and timing of the development of new deposits, the fact that the Company’s interests in its mineral properties (including the Atacama Project and Trinity project) are options only and there is no guarantee that the Company’s interests in same, if earned, will be certain, requirements for additional capital, future prices of lithium, changes in general economic conditions, changes in the financial markets and in the demand and market price for commodities, lack of investor interest in future financings, accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry, delays in obtaining governmental approvals, permits or financing or in the completion of development or construction activities, changes in laws, regulations and policies affecting mining operations, title disputes, the inability of the Company to obtain any necessary permits, consents, approvals or authorizations (including acceptance by the TSXV for the June Loans, the Bonus Warrants and the Amended Bonus Warrants)), the timing and possible outcome of any pending litigation, environmental issues and liabilities, and risks related to joint venture operations, and other risks and uncertainties disclosed in the Company’s latest interim Management Discussion and Analysis and filed with certain securities commissions in Canada. All of the Company’s Canadian public disclosure filings may be accessed via www.sedar.com and readers are urged to review these materials, including the technical reports filed with respect to the Company’s mineral properties.
Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements in this news release or incorporated by reference herein, except as otherwise required by law.
