Romarco, Western Goldfields and U.S. Gold plan merger

Vancouver – A combination of Romarco Minerals (R-V), Western Goldfields (WGDF-O) and U.S. Gold (USGL-O) is in the works, creating a new prospective mid-tier gold producer with a significant property portfolio.

Under the agreement, the new company will be held by shareholders of the predecessor companies on the basis: 20% by Romarco, 42% by Western Goldfields and 38% by U.S. Gold.

The merger has Romarco as the surviving entity, issuing new shares for the other two companies and maintaining a TSX-Venture Exchange listing.

Romarco president and CEO Diane Garrett will become CEO of the new company with Western Goldfields president and CEO Thomas Mancuso taking on the new president role.

Within a year-and-a-half, the new gold company has production aspirations in the order of 150,000 oz. of gold annually from two mines. Western Goldfields’ Mesquite mine, in southern California, currently produces about 25,000 oz. of gold annually from residual leaching of 138 million tonnes of ore on the heaps.

The open pit Mesquite mine, acquired from Newmont Mining (NEM-N) in late-2003, operated from 1986-2001 and has produced over 3 million oz. of gold. Four fully permitted extensions to the existing pits contain an estimated 38.3 million tonnes of in situ mineralized material grading 0.6 gram gold per tonne (740,000 oz. of contained gold).

The primary asset U.S. Gold brings to the table is its Tonkin Springs gold project in north central Nevada’s Cortez trend. The deposit contains an estimated 26.5 million tonnes of mineralized material grading 1.2 grams gold (1 million oz. gold contained) and includes an existing 1,500-tonne-per-day mill facility. Tonkin Springs operated from 1985-88 and in 1990.

Having held an interest in Tonkin Springs since the mid-1980s, U.S. Gold recently regained full title following joint venture partner BacTech Mining’s (BM-V) pull out from the project after falling short on funding the reclamation bond.

Romarco holds a number of gold exploration projects including the Buck-Skin National, Roberts Mountain and Pine Grove properties in Nevada and the Cori Puncho project in Peru.

In addition to its Canadian listing, the new company plans to seek a senior listing in the U.S.