To Rye Patch Shareholders: We started out the year with a bang and have been very busy moving the company forward. I want to take this opportunity to add some clarification to the actions taken by Rye Patch Gold Corp. in the past few weeks.
First, please know that the board and executive team weigh every major corporate decision against the benchmark of creating long-term shareholder value. We made a series of active decisions in reviewing the Rye Patch balance sheet as well as a review of our debt and made decisions based on ensuring the health of Rye Patch and growth for our shareholders.
The board created a Special Committee to identify these opportunities and approved a stock consolidation as well as a
Bought Deal Private Placement financing in January. Each of these decisions is a part of the plan on moving the Company forward for shareholders.
As you know, the ramp-up of the Florida Canyon Mine faced a number of challenges through 2017 that we have worked to overcome, albeit at the cost of time and money. It would be unfortunate if, at the cusp of achieving our ultimate goal, it could be derailed by not having a sufficient cushion of funds to deal with any future requirements. Hence the need for the additional funds that come with the financing .
Being a shareholder myself, I have carefully weighed every decision and there is no doubt in my mind that this was the best course of action to ensure Rye Patch completes the job and begins to benefit from the value of the Florida Canyon mine and the entire Oreana Trend land package.
The financing, as outlined in the news releases dated
January 17 and
January 31, 2018, made available almost CAD$19 million on a net basis to our treasury, providing us with sufficient capital cushion to manage issues that may arise.
The Board of Directors of Rye Patch Gold Corp. has approved a process to review and evaluate potential alternatives that may further maximize value for Rye Patch’s shareholders through the appointment of a Special Committee comprised solely of independent directors. The Special Committee is chaired by Tim Baker and is comprised of Jonathan Challis, Charles Russell and John Mansanti, the current
independent directors of Rye Patch Gold Corp. The Company’s ramp up at Florida Canyon will be unaffected by this review process.
We greatly appreciate our shareholders and all of our actions are undertaken to increase shareholder value.
With our December 2017
commercial production declaration, we will continue ramping up towards targeted production levels. The future is bright, and we are confident that we are moving in the right direction.
Thank you for your continued support.
Bill Howald
Rye Patch President, CEO and Founder
