VANCOUVER, Dec. 16, 2011 /PRNewswire/ – Great Basin Gold Ltd, (“Great Basin” or the “Company”), (TSX: GBG) (NYSE Amex: GBG) (JSE: GBG) today provided an operational update for its Burnstone Mine in South Africa.

The purpose is to provide an update on operational progress, mainly in development activities and the establishment of stoping blocks available for mining at Burnstone.

** 95% Mine Call Factor

Burnstone Mine continued to make good progress in a number of areas, notably in ore development which increased by 29% and in contained gold extracted (development and stoping), which increased by 16% compared to the similar period in the previous quarter. The lower square meters stoped follows the announcement that the stope configurations would be changed to improve operational efficiencies that will show in cash costs, dilution and recovery grades. More significantly, the number of square meters available for stoping increased by 45%. Tonnes milled decreased by some 14%, mainly due to the depletion of the low grade development ore stockpile in the previous quarter.

The Company has also closed the previously announced US$150 million credit facility provided by Credit Suisse Ag and Standard Chartered Bank and the funds were drawn down. The Company has executed the associated zero cost collars (ZCC) hedge structure, which replaces the previously remaining 91,250 US$1,705 call options as well as the unexecuted 40,000 call options under the standby facility announced in August 2011, totaling 131,250 ounces. The new structure includes 82,737 call options priced at US$1,890 as well as a further 82,737 call options priced at US$1,930. The delivery of these ounces is spread over the 5 years ending December 2016. The graph below indicates the Company’s total hedge exposure after executing the restructured ZCC. It includes the ZCC structure executed in February 2011 which also has a collar price of US$1,930. The news release with the graph included is posted on the Company’s website at:

http://www.grtbasin.com/news/Great-Basin-Gold-Provides-Operational-Update/index.html?&re=1.

Ferdi Dippenaar, CEO and President commented; “We are making good progress with increasing the rate of ore development required to increase the number of stopes available for mining at Burnstone. The decision to increase the size of the mining blocks was the correct one, with resultant operational efficiencies already starting to show. Current stoping continues to confirm that the decision to use Long Hole Stoping as preferred mining method was correct. In addition, concluding the debt facility provides the necessary flexibility to ensure that the delayed production build up can be funded.”

About Great Basin Gold

Great Basin Gold (GBG: TSX; GBG: NYSE Amex; GBG: JSE) is a mining company engaged in the exploration and development of gold properties. The Company is currently focused on its two producing mines in the world’s two richest gold regions: the Hollister Project on the Carlin Trend in Nevada, USA and the Burnstone Mine in the Witwatersrand goldfield of South Africa.

No regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained in this news release.

Cautionary and Forward Looking Statement Information

This document contains “forward-looking statements” that were based on Great Basin’s expectations, estimates and projections as of the dates as of which those statements were made. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “outlook”, “anticipate”, “project”, “target”, “believe”, “estimate”, “expect”, “intend”, “should” and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company’s actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These include but are not limited to:

• uncertainties and costs related to the Company’s exploration and development activities, such as those associated with determining whether mineral resources or reserves exist on a property;
• uncertainties related to feasibility studies that provide estimates of expected or anticipated costs, expenditures and economic returns from a mining project; uncertainties related to expected production rates, timing of production and the cash and total costs of production and milling;
• uncertainties related to the ability to obtain necessary licenses, permits, electricity, surface rights and title for development projects;
• operating and technical difficulties in connection with mining development activities;
• uncertainties related to the accuracy of our mineral reserve and mineral resource estimates and our estimates of future production and future cash and total costs of production, and the geotechnical or hydrogeological nature of ore deposits, and diminishing quantities or grades of mineral reserves;
• uncertainties related to unexpected judicial or regulatory proceedings;
• changes in, and the effects of, the laws, regulations and government policies affecting our mining operations, particularly laws, regulations and policies relating to
  • mine expansions, environmental protection and associated compliance costs arising from exploration, mine development, mine operations and mine closures;
  • expected effective future tax rates in jurisdictions in which our operations are located;
  • the protection of the health and safety of mine workers; and
  • mineral rights ownership in countries where our mineral deposits are located, including the effect of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (South Africa);
• changes in general economic conditions, the financial markets and in the demand and market price for gold, silver and other minerals and commodities, such as diesel fuel, coal, petroleum coke, steel, concrete, electricity and other forms of energy, mining equipment, and fluctuations in exchange rates, particularly with respect to the value of the U.S. dollar, Canadian dollar and South African rand;
• unusual or unexpected formation, cave-ins, flooding, pressures, and precious metals losses (and the risk of inadequate insurance or inability to obtain insurance to cover these risks);
• changes in accounting policies and methods we use to report our financial condition, including uncertainties associated with critical accounting assumptions and estimates;
• environmental issues and liabilities associated with mining including processing and stock piling ore;
• geopolitical uncertainty and political and economic instability in countries which we operate; and
• labour strikes, work stoppages, or other interruptions to, or difficulties in, the employment of labour in markets in which we operate mines, or environmental hazards, industrial accidents or other events or occurrences, including third party interference that interrupt the production of minerals in our mines.

For further information on Great Basin Gold, investors should review the Company’s annual Form 40-F filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission www.sec.gov and home jurisdiction filings that are available at www.sedar.com.

SOURCE Great Basin Gold Ltd.

(All amounts expressed in US dollars unless otherwise indicated)

TORONTO, Dec. 16, 2011 /CNW/ – Royal Nickel Corporation (“RNC”) (TSX: RNX) is pleased to announce, further to its news release of November 1, 2011, that the full Dumont Nickel Project NI 43-101 compliant technical report pre-feasibility study (“Dumont PFS”) will be filed today under RNC’s profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on RNC’s website at www.royalnickel.com.

The previously announced highlights from the Dumont PFS include:

• $1.1 billion after-tax NPV_8%, 17% after-tax internal rate of return (“IRR”)¹
• C1 cash costs² of $4.13 per pound, second quartile unit cash costs
  • Site operating costs reduced by 24% from the 100 ktpd scenario in the Preliminary Economic Assessment (“PEA”)
• Staged development approach: lower cost and lower risk — more than 50% reduction in initial capital outlay from the 100 ktpd scenario outlined in the PEA
  • Initial capital expenditure of $1.1 billion for 50 ktpd operation
  • Expansion to 100 ktpd by year 5 requires $0.7 billion of additional capital
• 1.1 billion tonnes of reserves at 0.27% nickel³, life-of-mine strip ratio of 1.2:1, 31-year project life
• Average annual contained nickel production of 96 million pounds (44 kt) during the 19-year mine life and 59 million pounds (27 kt) for the subsequent 12 years from processing of the lower grade stockpile
• Single high grade concentrate containing an average of 33% nickel over life of project
• All major support infrastructure (rail line, roads and water) already in place
• Additional potential upsides: production of a final ferronickel product, production of iron ore (magnetite) concentrate by-product, additional recovery optimization and use of in-pit crushing or trolley system

“With the full Dumont PFS now complete and our permitting process underway, we are enthusiastically moving forward with multiple studies aimed at improving upon the positive Dumont PFS results. The RNC team is entirely focused on making this exceptional project even better through detailed examinations of potential improvements identified during the PFS process in the areas of by-product credits, mining methods, pit design, mill recoveries, and further downstream processing options,” said Tyler Mitchelson, President and CEO of RNC. “To further support the project, RNC continues to place a high priority on working with the local community to maintain a high standard of communications throughout all phases of development.”

NI 43-101 Compliance

Unless otherwise indicated, the Corporation has prepared the technical information in this news release (“Technical Information”) based on information contained in the pre-feasibility study dated December 16, 2011 relating to the Corporation’s Dumont Nickel Project and news releases (collectively the “Disclosure Documents”) available under Royal Nickel Corporation’s company profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Each Disclosure Document was prepared by or under the supervision of a qualified person (a “Qualified Person”) as defined in NI 43-101 – Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects of the Canadian Securities Administrators. Readers are encouraged to review the full text of the Disclosure Documents which qualifies the Technical Information. Readers are advised that mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The Disclosure Documents are each intended to be read as a whole, and sections should not be read or relied upon out of context. The Technical Information is subject to the assumptions and qualifications contained in the Disclosure Documents.

The Technical Information contained in this news release has been prepared under the supervision of Alger St-Jean, P. Geo., Vice President Exploration of the Corporation and Johnna Muinonen, Vice President Metallurgy of the Corporation, both Qualified Persons under NI 43-101.

About Royal Nickel Corporation

Royal Nickel Corporation is a mineral resource company focused primarily on the exploration, development, evaluation and acquisition of base metal and platinum group metal properties. RNC’s principal asset is the 100% owned Dumont Nickel Project strategically located in the established Abitibi mining camp, 25 kilometres northwest of Amos, Quebec. RNC has a strong management team and Board with over 100 years of mining experience in the nickel business at Inco and Falconbridge. The Corporation’s common shares and warrants trade on the TSX under the symbols RNX and RNX.WT.

Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains “forward-looking information” including without limitation statements relating to mineral reserve estimates, mineral resource estimates, realization of mineral reserve and resource estimates, capital and operating cost estimates, the timing and amount of future production, costs of production, success of mining operations, the ranking of the project in terms of cash cost and production, permitting, economic return estimates and potential upside. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Corporation to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. The pre-feasibility study results are estimates only, are preliminary in nature and are based on a number of assumptions, any of which, if incorrect, could materially change the projected outcome. Until a positive feasibility study has been completed, and even with the completion of a positive feasibility study, there are no assurances that Dumont will be placed into production. Factors that could affect the outcome include, among others: the actual results of development activities; project delays; inability to raise the funds necessary to complete development; general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; future prices of metals; availability of alternative nickel sources or substitutes; actual nickel recovery; conclusions of economic evaluations; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; political instability, terrorism, insurrection or war; delays in obtaining governmental approvals, necessary permitting or in the completion of development or construction activities. For a more detailed discussion of such risks and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, refer to RNC’s filings with Canadian securities regulators available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Although the Corporation has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this news release and the Corporation disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws.

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¹Based on $9.00 per pound long term nickel price and CDN$1.00 = US$0.90 exchange rate. NPV and IRR calculated from start of construction, January 2014 and based on October 2011 real costs.

²C1 cash costs are defined as the cash cost incurred at each processing stage, from mining through to recoverable nickel delivered to the market, net of by-product credits.

³See RNC news release dated November 1, 2011 and pre-feasibility study dated December 16, 2011, available on www.sedar.com.