Noble Mineral owes MNDM $1.4M in arrears for Project 81

Oct 17, 2017

2017-10-17 07:13 ET – News Release

Mr. Vance White reports

NOBLE FINALIZES AGREEMENT FOR PAYMENT OF TAX ARREARS ON PROJECT 81

Noble Mineral Exploration Inc. has entered into an agreement with Ontario’s Ministry of Northern Development and Mines (MNDM) regarding the payment of tax arrears and accrued interest on Noble’s Project 81. As previously announced (see Noble’s news releases of July 29, 2015, and Jan, 18, 2016), Noble was advised by the MNDM that mining land taxes were assessed against its Project 81 patented lands beginning on Jan. 1, 2012. Under the agreement, Noble has confirmed that the amount it currently owes to the MNDM stands at approximately $1.4-million, including taxes and interest for the period of January, 2012, to September, 2017.

Under the terms of the agreement, Noble is required to pay the tax arrears and accruing mining land taxes in 10 instalments, with the first payment having been made. The final payment will be due in September, 2019, and upon Noble having made that payment it will have paid tax arrears plus all current mining land taxes through to that date. Pursuant to the agreement, Noble will also execute surrender documents for the lands that will be held in escrow by the MNDM until all required payments have been made. If Noble defaults under the agreement, the MNDM has the option of demanding full payment of all then-outstanding taxes and interest, or terminating Noble’s ownership of the lands after the expiration of a specified notice period.

Under the agreement, Noble is entitled to enter into option, joint venture or similar agreements with respect to portions of the lands provided that the rights of third parties under those option agreements are subordinated to the rights of the MNDM under the agreement. In addition, Noble has a discretionary right to accelerate payment of tax arrears attributable to all or any optioned lands and, upon such payment, the MNDM will return the surrender documents associated with those optioned lands and confirm that all taxes due have been paid, after which the optioned lands will no longer be included as lands.

Vance White, Noble’s president and chief executive officer, commented: “We’re pleased as this agreement will now allow for Noble to pursue its strategy of entering into multiple option and JV agreements with third parties and allow for an aggressive exploration of what we consider to be underexplored lands using modern state-of-the-art exploration tools, while also providing us with a clear framework for Noble to explore other areas of Project 81 on its own. With the approximately 70,000-hectare land package being located just north of the world-class VMS [volcanogenic massive sulphide] Kidd Creek mine currently celebration its 50th year of continuous production, we believe in the old adage of location, location, location.”

About Noble Mineral Exploration Inc.

Noble Mineral Exploration is a Canadian-based junior exploration company which, in addition to its shareholdings in MacDonald Mines Exploration Ltd. and its interest in the Holdsworth gold exploration property in the area of Wawa, Ont., holds in excess of 70,641 hectares of mineral rights in the Timmins-Cochrane areas of Northern Ontario known as Project 81. Project 81 hosts diversified drill-ready gold and base metal exploration targets at various stages of exploration.

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