"Geoinformatics and Rimfire recently announced a proposed business combination. Details are as follows:

Under the proposed transaction, Geoinformatics will acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of Rimfire on the basis of 2.6 shares of Geoinformatics for each share of Rimfire. At the time of the announcement, this represented about a 33% premium for RFM shareholders. Jason Weber will be President and CEO of the new company, which will retain the Rimfire name. The transaction is subject to several conditions and must be approved by not less than two-thirds of RFM shareholders and on-half of GXL shareholders at special shareholder meetings scheduled for late July 2009. The combined company will have approximately 47.5 million shares outstanding following an initial 3:1 rollback of GXL shares. Geologic Resource Partners LLC holds approximately 84.9% of the issued and outstanding GXL common shares.

Rimfire has a property portfolio that includes 15 gold and copper-gold projects in Canada and an earn-in option on three properties on trend with Northgate's Stawell gold mine in Australia. Rimfire management has a strong reputation for solid technical strength, integrity and sound capital management.

Geoinformatics' key project of interest is the Whistler property in Alaska that covers 440 square kilometers in an area about 160 kilometers northwest of Anchorage. The Whistler project covers an E-W trending Au-Cu porphyry belt. Within the project area, Rimfire management suggests there are over 40 untested geological targets. The Whistler zone is the most advanced target in the area and currently hosts an NI 43-101 resource (indicated and inferred) containing about 5.75 million ounces AuEq. The Muddy Creek target area has returned rock chip samples (about 150) over an area of 3.2 by 3.3 kilometers averaging 4.72 g/t Au."
    -WENDELL ZERB, B.SC., P. GEOL.,   CANACCORD ADAMS (06/09/09)

"Geoinformatics (GXL) will acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of Rimfire (RFM) at an agreed exchange ratio of 2.6 GXL shares per RFM share. The merged company will have 47.5 million shares issued and outstanding and approximately C$5 million in cash. The transaction is expected to close before the end of July 2009, and upon closing Rimfire shareholders will hold approximately 47% of the combined company. The Geologic Resource Partners LLC will own ~40%; other major shareholders include Rule Family Trust 3.6% and Global Strategic 2.7%.

We keep track of the prospect generators because many EI subscribers own shares in these companies and subscribe to the joint venture business model for minerals exploration. . .

Whistler is a modest-grade, medium-sized porphyry gold/copper deposit located in mountainous terrain west of Anchorage, AK. It contains an indicated 840,000 oz gold grading 0.87 grams per ton gold and 159 million lbs. copper grading 0.24% copper, and an inferred 2.3 million ounces gold grading 0.59 grams per ton gold and 515 million pounds grading 0.19% copper plus some resources classified as underground.

The geologists at Rimfire have decades of international experience exploring for mineral deposits and are acutely aware of Mother Nature's miserly ways when it comes to major mineral systems. It is their opinion that the Whistler Complex represents one of those rare massive mineral systems that are comprised of a multitude of large hydrothermal cells. This is the appropriate geologic setting where major deposits form. Work thus far has primarily focused on the Whistler porphyry and has not followed up on the 10's of other showings identified to date. Rimfire believes they bring the expertise that is the key to unlocking the exploration potential and value of the Whistler complex.

There is no doubt in my mind that the Whistler Complex represents a major mineral belt and offers multiple strong gold and copper targets.

In summary, this is a transaction that should work very well in a bull market. I am confident RFM knows what an underexplored major mineral district looks like and concur that the Whistler property package is a massive system."
    -   Exploration Insights (05/30/09)

"Rimfire employs. . .a fantastic group of exploration geologists. These are “boots on the ground” geologists. Teams are in the field looking for projects from scratch. That helps keep costs down and increases the company’s knowledge and understanding of the geology. That kind of preparation makes the projects highly desirable to partners...In the last three years, Rimfire has spent more than $20 million on exploration—85% funded by its partners. That means for every dollar the company spent looking for gold it only used 15¢ of its own money. Over the life of the company, partners funded 84% of the exploration costs. That is the power of the joint-venture model at work—funding exploration with other people's money. Today the company has 15 projects, 8 of which have partners working on them."
    -   The Gold Report Interview with Matt Badiali (04/21/09)

"As to the intellectually astute I tend to go with the companies and people that also recognize the extremely long odds of success in this casino. For the most part these are companies that offset the high-cost, high-risk drilling and development stage of an exploration program to a better-funded partner. These 'prospect generator' companies offer the long-term sustainability and survival a typical 'all or nothing' explorer lacks. I recently commented in detail on a group of these in Exploration Insights. Some examples include Miranda Gold (MAD.TSX-V) active in Nevada, Rimfire Minerals (RFM.TSX-V) exploring in Western Canada and Australia and Mirasol Resources (MRZ.TSX-V) in Argentina and Chile. Each has the best technical team in their little piece of the world and a management focused on creating real shareholder value in this very risky business." Read full article
    -   The Gold Report/Exploration Insights (04/14/09)

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