Blue Thunder Announces Management Changes, Bolstering Exploration Expertise
Toronto, April 1, 2020 - Blue Thunder Mining Inc. (TSXV: BLUE) ("Blue Thunder" or "the Company") is pleased to announce several key management and Board of Director changes to strengthen the company's expertise to accelerate growth in gold mineral assets in 2020 and beyond.
Robert Cinits has been appointed as President, Chief Executive Officer ("CEO") and Director of the Company, effective April 1, 2020. Chad Williams, formerly CEO and Chairman of the Company, has been appointed Executive Chairman and will remain a Director of Blue Thunder. Drew Anwyll has voluntarily stepped down as President to pursue other opportunities.
Mr. Cinits, who has served as a Technical Advisor to the Company since November 2019, brings a wealth of technical experience to the role with over three decades of mining and exploration experience. Robert is a professional economic geologist and business development executive, who has spent the past 12 years in senior management roles. He has been involved in the exploration, development and M&A reviews of precious and base metal projects in approximately 20 countries and has a strong background in project management and evaluation, exploration program design and evaluation and execution of M&A opportunities.
Mr. Cinits was previously with Entrée Resources in several roles, most recently as Vice President of Corporate Development and with Mason Resources as COO, prior to their takeover by HudBay Minerals. Prior to this, Mr. Cinits was the COO for Mincore Inc., a private exploration company advancing a base metal project in Mexico. In addition, he also headed the mining and geology team in Lima, Peru for AMEC Americas, a large UK-based consulting company and started and ran a South American (Chile) office for A.C.A. Howe International Consultants. Mr. Cinits holds a B.Sc. in geology from the University of Toronto and is a Professional Geologist ("P.Geo") registered with the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia.
The Company is also pleased to announce the appointment of Orin Baranowsky as Chief Financial Officer ("CFO") and Corporate Secretary, effective April 1, 2020. Mr. Baranowsky replaces Ryan Webster, who has voluntarily stepped down to pursue other opportunities effective March 31, 2020.
Mr. Baranowsky is a mining executive with more than 20 years of finance and capital markets experience. Most recently, he was the Chief Financial Officer for Stornoway Diamond Corporation, where he led the finance, accounting, corporate development, investor relations and IT functions for the company. He previously served as Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Development and Director, Investor Relations for Stornoway; as Vice President of Investor Relations for CB Gold Inc.; and spent more than 10 years as an Equities Analyst for BMO Capital Markets. Mr. Baranowsky is a CFA Charterholder and holds an Honours Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Wilfrid Laurier University.
Blue Thunder CEO and Chairman Chad Williams commented, "Having Robert and Orin come on board as the new CEO and CFO respectively, is part of an exciting transition for Blue Thunder, as we formalize plans to grow the Company and accelerate exploration at our Muus gold project near Chibougamau, Québec. Robert's strong technical background and experience in corporate development combined with Orin's strong background in finance and capital markets will be a tremendous asset for us during the next stages of the Company's growth. On behalf of the Board, I am extremely pleased to welcome both Rob and Orin to our executive team."
Arv Gupta has submitted his resignation as a member of the Board of Directors, effective immediately.
Mr. Williams goes on to comment, "On behalf of the entire Blue Thunder team, I would like to thank Ryan, Drew and Arv for their incredibly valuable contributions to Blue Thunder as the Company made the transition from a private company to its current status as a publicly traded company on the TSXV. I personally want to sincerely thank each of them for their hard work, dedication and professionalism over the period that they were involved with the Company and we wish them all the best with their future endeavours."
Corporate Update in Relation to the Coronavirus Outbreak ("COVID-19")
In a response to the recent outbreak of the COVID-19 virus, the Québec Government recently issued a directive that all non-essential businesses, including mineral exploration, must temporarily suspend operations from March 25, 2020 until at least April 13, 2020. Blue Thunder had yet to initiate the field portion of our exploration program and therefore the Company's programs are not immediately affected. However, if the directive's end is extended significantly the Company may need to re-evaluate the timing of field programs and other activities and will update our shareholders at that time.
Importantly, and helping to offset some of the aspects of this directive, the Québec government is considering providing certain incentives such as deferring claim costs for a period of time. We are watching developments in Québec closely as they relate to mineral exploration and will report on any further announcements at the appropriate time.
The health and safety of our staff, contractors and our community are of utmost importance to the Company and we are adhering to a work from home policy for our employees, contractors and partners until further notice.
Conference Call
Blue Thunder Management will host a webcast on April 2, 2020 at 2:00 p.m. to discuss the recent management changes. This webcast may be accessed at: http://www.gowebcasting.com/10590
A recording of the webcast will be made available on Blue Thunder's website https://www.bluethundermining.com/
About Blue Thunder
Blue Thunder (TSXV: BLUE) is a gold exploration company that controls 100% of a large land position near Chibougamau, Québec. The Muus Project covers approximately 48,500 hectares in three separate blocks of prospective ground in the eastern part of the Abitibi Greenstone Belt. The Project is considered particularly prospective for gold mineralization, as a series of prominent ductile and brittle fault?sets transect the Property, including the Guercheville Deformation Zone, which is associated with numerous past and currently producing precious? and base?metal mines in the District.]
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
Chad Williams
Executive Chairman
Blue Thunder Mining Inc.
105 King Street East, 2nd Floor
Toronto, Ontario
M5C 1G6
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Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation that is based on expectations, estimates, projections and interpretations as at the date of this news release. The information in this news release about the transaction; and any other information herein that is not a historical fact may be "forward-looking information". Any statement that involves discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, interpretations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as "expects", or "does not expect", "is expected", "interpreted", "management's view", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans", "budget", "scheduled", "forecasts", "estimates", "believes" or "intends" or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results "may" or "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking information and are intended to identify forward-looking information. This forward-looking information is based on reasonable assumptions and estimates of management of the Company, at the time it was made, involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the companies to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such factors include, among others, risks relating to the completion of the transactions described herein. Although the forward-looking information contained in this news release is based upon what management believes, or believed at the time, to be reasonable assumptions, the parties cannot assure shareholders and prospective purchasers of securities that actual results will be consistent with such forward-looking information, as there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended, and neither party nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of any such forward-looking information. Neither party undertakes, and assumes no obligation, to update or revise any such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information contained herein to reflect new events or circumstances, except as may be required by law.
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