Northgate And Primero Agree To Merge

On July 13, 2011, Northgate Minerals Corporation and Primero Mining Corp. announced that they have entered into a definitive arrangement agreement to combine their respective businesses and create a new, leading mid-tier gold producer with significant value creation opportunities.

Northgate will acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Primero for 1.50 Northgate common shares per Primero Share. The transaction will create a company with an expected combined market capitalization of approximately $1.2 billion.

Torys LLP represented Northgate Minerals with a team that included Kevin Morris, Alison Harnick, Tom Miller and John Emanoilidis (Canadian corporate and securities); Chris Roehrig and Daniel Raglan (US corporate and securities); Corrado Cardarelli, Andrew Wong and Saira Bhojani (Canadian tax); Peter Keenan and Ari Feder (US tax); Mitch Frazer (employment); Omar Wakil (regulatory); Andrew Gray (litigation) and Dennis Mahony (environmental).

Primero Mining Corp. was represented by McMillan LLP with a team consisting of Stephen Wortley and Leo Raffin, Grant Wong, Amandeep Sandhu, Farzad Forooghian, Amanda Bichai, Erica Weiss, Alexis Cloutier, and Arman Farahani (securities); Mike Taylor and Herb Ono (US securities); Tom Theodorakis, Damon Chisholm, Rob Scavone, David Dunlop and Dorothy Wong (commercial and security matters); Peter Botz, Christine Man and Kathy Wang (tax); David McInnis, David Elenbaas and Lyndsay Wasser (employment); Keith Clark (First Nations); Carl De Vuono, JR Beaudrie, Matt German and Bob Fraser (multi-jurisdiction due diligence - corporate and real estate); Cory Kent, Darrell Podowski, Carmen Diges and Laurel Petryk (mining); James Musgrove (anti-trust) and Karen Carteri (court applications).

Lawyer(s)

Andrew Wong Amandeep Sandhu Laurel M. Petryk Carl A. De Vuono Karen L. M. Carteri Erica Weiss Corrado Cardarelli Matthew German James B. Musgrove Thomas Miller Cory H. Kent Arman Farahani Christine Man Lyndsay Wasser Peter Botz David S. Elenbaas Peter Keenan Carmen L. Diges Mitch Frazer Herbert I. Ono Stephen D. Wortley Omar K. Wakil Amanda Bichai Grant Wong Dorothy Wong John E. Emanoilidis Andrew Gray Leo Raffin Alison Harnick Saira Bhojani J.R. Beaudrie Darrell W. Podowski Dennis E. Mahony Alexis Cloutier Farzad Forooghian Robert M. Scavone Kathy Wang Damon Chisholm David R. Dunlop Tom V. Theodorakis