TORONTO, June 30, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Bunker Hill Mining Corp. (the “Company”) (CSE: BNKR, OTCQB: BHLL) is pleased to announce that Dr. Mark Cruise has been appointed to its Board of Directors, replacing Mr. Wayne Parsons.
Richard Williams, Executive Chairman, commented: “I am excited and very proud to welcome Dr. Mark Cruise to the Board of Directors of Bunker Hill. A highly respected career geologist and company builder, his technical expertise, extensive professional network, and track record of growing mid-tier mining companies add essential strategic capabilities to our Board as we start to look beyond the restart the mine towards ways to create new value from investment in exploration and external growth opportunities. We are very lucky to have him join us.
But it is with a heavy heart that all of us at Bunker Hill bid farewell to the redoubtable Wayne Parsons, whose consistent passion, creativity, and entrepreneurial spirit, as both Board Member and CFO, has been invaluable to the early-stage turnaround management of the business.”
APPOINTMENT OF DR. MARK CRUISE AS INDEPENDENT DIRECTOR
Dr. Cruise is a professional geologist with over 27 years of international mining experience, in Europe, the Americas and Africa. A former polymetallic commodity specialist with Anglo American plc, Dr. Cruise founded and was Chief Executive Officer of Trevali Mining Corporation. Under his leadership, the company grew from an initial discovery into a top-ten global zinc producer with operations in the Americas and Africa. He has previously served as Vice President Business Development and Exploration, COO and CEO for several TSX, TSX-Venture and NYSE-Americas listed exploration and development Companies. Mark has Served on 9 Public Company Boards over 14 years for TSX-V; TSX and NYSE-Americas listed Exploration, Development and Producing Companies with market capitalizations ranging from tens of millions to in-excess of US$1 billion.
Mr. Wayne Parsons is a mining finance entrepreneur who served as Bunker Hill’s CFO between May 2019 and January 2021, stepping up to be a key Non-Executive Board Director thereafter. He leaves the Board and the Company effective June 30, 2022 but will remain close to the Company as both a supportive shareholder and friend.
“Now that our business is focused fully upon the technical aspects of restarting and developing the mine’s potential, I am delighted to hand over my governance responsibilities to Dr. Mark Cruise whose technical expertise and experience are vital for this stage of the company’s development,” said Mr. Parsons. “This is indeed a very exciting moment for all our shareholders.”
INVESTMENT IN A PARTNERSHIP CULTURE – SHARE-BASED BONUS AWARDS
The Company is delighted to report that it has awarded 1,218,000 Units of the Company as a one-time bonus to 26 Idaho-based personnel in recognition of significant and special contributions made towards the restart of the Bunker Hill Mine, including underground rehabilitation and development, infrastructure improvements, geology, and environmental and community initiatives. In addition to recognizing their extraordinary efforts at a challenging and foundational time, this also represents the first step along a path designed to build a distinctive performance-focused ‘ownership culture’ within the Company.
“Our ability to maximize the value contained within the Bunker Hill mine is directly related to the performance-focused partnership that we are building with our Silver Valley contractors and personnel,” said Sam Ash, CEO of the Company. “We do not take that of them for granted and believe it is vital that they can share in the very special opportunity that is being created here. This is just one small first step on the path to achieving that.”
Each Unit is comprised is comprised of one common share and one warrant to purchase a common share of the Company at a price of CAD 0.37 per common share until April 1, 2025.
ABOUT BUNKER HILL MINING CORP.
Under new Idaho-based leadership the Bunker Hill Mining Corp, intends to sustainably restart and develop the Bunker Hill Mine as the first step in consolidating a portfolio of North American precious-metal assets with a focus on silver. Information about the Company is available on its website,
www.bunkerhillmining.com
, or within the SEDAR and EDGAR databases.
For additional information contact:
David Wiens, CFA
CFO & Corporate Secretary
+1 208 370 3665
CAUTIONARY STATEMENTS
Certain statements in this news release are forward-looking and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements are within the meaning of that term in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, as well as within the meaning of the phrase ‘forward-looking information’ in the Canadian Securities Administrators’ National Instrument 51-102 – Continuous Disclosure Obligations. Forward-looking statements are not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking statements include estimates and statements that describe the Company’s future plans, objectives or goals, including words to the effect that the Company or management expects a stated condition or result to occur. Forward-looking statements may be identified by such terms as “believes”, “anticipates”, “expects”, “estimates”, “may”, “could”, “would”, “will”, or “plan”. Since forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Although these statements are based on information currently available to the Company, the Company provides no assurance that actual results will meet management’s expectations. Risks, uncertainties and other factors involved with forward-looking information could cause actual events, results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Forward looking information in this news release includes, but is not limited to, the Company’s intentions regarding: its objectives, goals or future plans and statements; closing the Stream as described herein with SRSR; the financing package with SRSR being sufficient for the purposes described herein; the Company’s ability to secure additional financing, whether dilutive or non-dilutive; the Company’s ability to progress detailed engineering of the Bunker Hill Mine; the Company’s ability to complete the underground decline, the demobilization of the Pend Oreille mill, and further engineering optimization in preparation for the mine restart; the Company’s ability to restart production at the Bunker Hill Mine; and the completion of a pre-feasibility study and the timing thereof. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to: the ability to predict and counteract the effects of COVID-19 on the business of the Company, including but not limited to the effects of COVID-19 on the price of commodities, capital market conditions, restriction on labour and international travel and supply chains; failure to identify mineral resources; failure to convert estimated mineral resources to reserves; the inability to complete a feasibility study which recommends a production decision; the preliminary nature of metallurgical test results; the Company’s ability to restart and develop the Bunker Hill Mine and the risks of not basing a production decision on a feasibility study of mineral reserves demonstrating economic and technical viability, resulting in increased uncertainty due to multiple technical and economic risks of failure which are associated with this production decision including, among others, areas that are analyzed in more detail in a feasibility study, such as applying economic analysis to resources and reserves, more detailed metallurgy and a number of specialized studies in areas such as mining and recovery methods, market analysis, and environmental and community impacts and, as a result, there may be an increased uncertainty of achieving any particular level of recovery of minerals or the cost of such recovery, including increased risks associated with developing a commercially mineable deposit with no guarantee that production will begin as anticipated or at all or that anticipated production costs will be achieved; failure to commence production would have a material adverse impact on the Company’s ability to generate revenue and cash flow to fund operations; failure to achieve the anticipated production costs would have a material adverse impact on the Company’s cash flow and future profitability; delays in obtaining or failures to obtain required governmental, environmental or other project approvals; political risks; changes in equity markets; uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future; the inability of the Company to budget and manage its liquidity in light of the failure to obtain additional financing, including the ability of the Company to complete the payments to the U.S. EPA pursuant to the terms of the agreement to acquire the Bunker Hill Mine; inflation; changes in exchange rates; fluctuations in commodity prices; delays in the development of projects; capital, operating and reclamation costs varying significantly from estimates and the other risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry; the cost, timing and ability to implement ESG initiatives which may not be technically successful or economically viable; and those risks set out in the Company’s public documents filed on SEDAR. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information, which only applies as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein.
