Effective September 1, 2009, mining issuers that are planning an offering under National Instrument 44-101 Short Form Prospectus Distributions can take advantage of the British Columbia Securities Commission’s (“BCSC”) new expedited review process of their technical disclosure, if its principal regulator (as defined under Multilateral Instrument 11-102 Passport System) is the BCSC. The BCSC anticipates that this initiative will facilitate the timely receipt for a short form prospectus for a mining issuer’s offering. The pre-prospectus review is intended to indentify any potential issues that may delay the final receipt of a short form prospectus.

Mining issuers seeking this advance review must prepare an application to the attention of Mr. Robert Holland, the BCSC’s Chief Mining Advisor, at least 10 days prior to the date the issuer expects to file its preliminary short form prospectus. The application must be emailed to review.request@bcsc.bc.ca and must include the name of the mining issuer, the name and contact details of the person making the application, a list of the mining issuer’s material properties and the target date for the filing of the mining issuer’s short form prospectus. The BCSC will not charge an application fee for this service.

The BCSC will use its best efforts to review the mining issuer’s technical disclosure filed on SEDAR for compliance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, the mining issuer’s latest annual information form, all news releases and material change reports since the filing of the latest annual information and the most recently filed 43-101F1 technical reports for the mining issuer’s material properties.

If you have questions about the new technical disclosure review policy, contact any member of Clark Wilson’s Corporate Finance & Securities Group.