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Shakespeare Mine
Owner: Wellgreen Platinum

Wellgreen Platinum’s 100%-owned Shakespeare Ni-Cu-PGM mine project is a fully-permitted, production ready, open pit mine located in the Sudbury mine district of Ontario, Canada.  The mine was intermittently in production between 2008 and 2012 using contract mining and a custom mill processing arrangement that included treatment and refining.  Shakespeare recorded gross revenue of $11.2 million on the sale of metals from the mine for the fiscal year that ended January 31, 2012, compared to $14.9 million the previous fiscal year.
 
In February 2012, it was announced that operations at the Shakespeare mine had been temporarily suspended due to high on and off-site operating costs.  The mine is currently on care and maintenance while the Company completes a comprehensive review of the opportunities for cost reduction, with the goal of returning the mine to commercial production.
 
This review has been focused on opportunities to reduce operating costs in three key areas: toll milling/smelting contracts, reduction in ore haulage transport costs using a new, shorter route proposed by the Sagamok Anishnawbek First Nations, and the refinement of the mine plan/site operations.  The Company is targeting a 20% reduction in unit costs which at recent metal prices, could enable a sustainable operation that could also potentially fund some exploration and engineering activities at Wellgreen.
 
In addition, the Company is reviewing the economic and sustainability benefits associated with a used, high-quality site mill purchased from another location and a tailings storage facility, both of which are already permitted for construction.  A site mill also has potential to lengthen the life-of-mine plan, since the cut-off grade would decrease and the Company would be in a position to provide toll milling of production from other third-party-operated mines in the area.