Unigold is a Canadian-based, growth oriented, junior natural resource company focused on exploring and developing its gold projects in the Dominican Republic, a country highly prospective for gold and base metals mineralization. Unigold has been actively involved in exploration in the Dominican Republic for the past decade and has assembled a large, strategic land position to conduct exploration and development activities in the northwestern part of the country. The Company is publicly traded in Toronto on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSX-V).

As of September 2012, the Company had C$10.7 million in cash and no financial debt. Unigold’s largest shareholders include Shairco for Trading, Contracting and Industry (12%), Pinetree Capital & Pinetree Capital’s CEO (12%), Goodman Investment Counsel (11%), Sprott Inc (5%), RBC Global Asset Management (5%) and GCIC (3%).

The total cost to advance the project through the release of a PEA in the next 12 months is approximately C$14 million.

The proposed IFC investment is an equity investment of up to C$11.7 million ($11.4 million), comprised of: (i) an initial upfront investment of up to C$5 million ($4.8 million) to acquire about 7.5 percent of the ordinary shares outstanding of Unigold; and (ii) up to C$6.7 million ($6.5 million) for the exercise of share warrants to subscribe for additional ordinary shares.

12.36 million (USD)

Product Line	IFC Investment (million USD)
Risk Management
Guarantee
Loan
Equity	12.36

* These investment figures are indicative

The Neita property is located in the northwestern part of the Dominican Republic near the border with Haiti along the Cretaceous Age Volcanic Belt. It is located approximately 200 linear kilometers northwest of the capital city of Santo Domingo. Santiago de los Caballeros, the second largest city in the Dominican Republic, is about 100 kilometers northeast of the project. The western limit of the Neita property is defined by the Haitian border. The Company’s flagship project covers an area of 22,600 ha located at an elevation of ~1,000 meters above sea level.

The project site is accessible by paved road and the product may be transported by truck to a port on the north coast and ultimately sold to a smelter for recovery. There is access to a national power grid with 24hr electricity that reaches the nearby town of Restauración (approximately 1.5km away from the project site).

The proposed investment is an early-stage investment preceding a commercial resource discovery. Generally, exploration projects have limited development impact but even at this early stage, the proposed investment has shown tangible benefits for the surrounding communities. The Project provides some direct employment to rural communities in an IFC Frontier Region, where formal employment opportunities are scarce and poverty levels are high. The majority of employees are Dominican nationals, most of which are members of the community of Restauracion or members of other communities located in the area surrounding the project.

Should exploration lead to mine development and production, the developmental impacts from this Project would include revenues to the government, rural development through the creation of direct and indirect employment, continuing economic diversification into a new sector, and an important demonstration effect of how large-scale commercial mining may be developed in accordance with good international industry practice.

Governance has been weak in the country as captured by various governance metrics, including the World Bank Governance Indicators and Transparency International. However, given the early stage nature of the project and the limited benefits, especially in terms of fiscal revenues, any potential governance risks are deemed limited in the near to medium term. The Government has expressed interest to formally apply to join the EITI Initiative and become a candidate country.

Unigold has requested IFC''s support for the Neita Project. Specifically, IFC''s role is expected to include: (i) providing equity financing to a junior exploration company; (ii) advising on environmental and social performance standards, in particular to help the management team with the design and implementation of an environmental and social risk management system; and (iii) providing a stamp of approval for the company and its approach to environmental and social risk management, thereby assisting Unigold to raise further equity financing to advance the Project to the pre-feasibility study ("PFS") stage.

This is a category B project according to IFC’s Environmental and Social Review Procedure because the Environmental, Social and Health & Safety (ESHS) impacts related to the investment in exploration are limited, site specific and therefore adequately managed through implementation of appropriate mitigation measures. IFC’s review did not identify any significant adverse impacts or high risk exposures.

IFC’s categorization of this project is based on the impacts of exploration activities, which consist primarily of construction of drill pads and access road for exploration drilling, limited emissions of dust and waste streams from camp activities and machinery maintenance, use of limited amounts of water for exploration activities. The key social and environmental risks associated with the exploration drilling currently ongoing at Neita are (i) environmental, social and health and safety management of exploration activities – specifically erosion control, restoration and rehabilitation of drill pads and access roads, safe management and disposal of waste and oils, dust and noise control, water and effluent management, management of flora and fauna resources, occupational health and safety, community safety and emergency preparedness and response, (ii) temporary use of small fractions of land for drill pads, that have limited impacts on livestock grazing, and reduced ground for agricultural use, (iii) adequate consultation with potentially affected communities and civil societies to raise awareness about mining activities and associated potential project benefits and opportunities; (iv) managing community expectations with respect to job opportunities and community investment and, (v) ongoing community consultations and land use compensation planning.

Any IFC investment in any future mining development would be assessed as a new project and its categorization would be determined after the necessary due diligence. Even without an additional investment, IFC would require any future mine development with major impacts to follow PS1 in its requirements for a full ESIA as well as independent monitoring of project social and environmental performance and stakeholder engagement. Unigold will ensure that social and environmental assessment documents associated with such a development will be consistent with IFC’s Performance Standards and EHS Guidelines and be publicly available and consulted upon in accordance with IFC’s Access to Information Policy prior to the start of construction.

To address the above identified issues and meet the requirements of IFC’s Performance Standards, Unigold has committed to developing a comprehensive Health, Safety, Environment & Community (HSEC) Policy which will contain management plans and procedures to address existing risks and impacts from the exploration phase with commitments relating to any future mine development. Any gaps with IFC Performance Standards will be outlined in an Environmental and Social Action Plan (ESAP).

Please refer to the related Environmental and Social Review Summary (ESRS) document for this project.

Please refer to the Environmental and Social Action Plan (ESAP) tab in the related Environmental and Social Review Summary (ESRS) document for this project.