Polaris Minerals completes IPO and concurrent debt financing for US$80 million

On January 10, 2006, Polaris Minerals Corporation completed its Initial Public Offering for gross proceeds of approximately $80 million and listed its common shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange.  Concurrent with the closing of the IPO, Polaris also completed a debt financing pursuant to which it entered into a credit agreement with a syndicate of US lenders who agreed to extend credit to Polaris of up to US$47 million. Fasken Martineau advised Polaris in these transactions with a team led by Paul Wilson, and including Georald Ingborg (securities), Darrell Podowski (mining), Karima Penman (securities), Frank Schober (tax), Andrew Jackson (banking), and Sarah Mamoser (securities and banking).