WHETSTONE MINERALS ANNOUNCES ANTICIPATED CLOSING DATE FOR ACQUISITION AND PRIVATE PLACEMENT AND PROVIDES AN UPDATE ON INDIGENISA

CALGARY, April 1 /CNW/ -- 
CALGARY, April 1 /CNW/ - (TSX Venture: WMI) - Whetstone Minerals Ltd. ("Whetstone") announces that, further to its press releases dated November 2, 2010,
 December 1, 2010, December 31, 2010, January 21, 2011 and February 22,
 2011, Whetstone anticipates that, subject to the receipt of all
 necessary regulatory approvals (including TSXV approval), it will
 complete the previously announced acquisition (the "Acquisition") of the outstanding share of DGL Investments Number Four Mauritius
 from Duration Gold Limited in consideration for the issuance of
 45,000,000 common shares of Whetstone to Duration Gold Limited and the
 private placement financing of 50,000,000 common shares of Whetstone at
 an issue price of U.S.$0.10 per share (the "Private Placement") on or before April 8, 2011.


The Government of Zimbabwe gazetted the Indigenisation and Economic
 Empowerment Act in 2007. This Act made provision for the indigenisation
 of up to 51% of all foreign owned businesses operating in Zimbabwe.
 Regulations in support of the Act were subsequently published in
 February 2010 in preparation for the implementation of the provisions
 of the Act.


The Minister of Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment published
 on Monday, March 28, 2011, a statutory instrument in the Zimbabwean
 Government Gazette, General Notice 114 of 2011 (the "Notice"), setting
 out the requirements for the implementation of the provisions of the
 Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act and its supporting
 regulations as they pertain to the mining sector.


The Notice defines the minimum indigenisation and empowerment quota as
 "a controlling interest or 51% of the shares or interests which in
 terms of the Act is required to be held by indigenous Zimbabweans in
 the non-indigenous mining business concerned".


The Notice requires that disposals of the required indigenisation
 interests must be to defined "designated entities", which include the
 National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Fund, the Zimbabwe
 Mining Development Corporation or any company incorporated by that
 entity, a statutory sovereign wealth fund that may yet be created, or
 an employee share ownership scheme or trust.


The Notice states that "the value of the shares or other interests
 required to be disposed of to a designated entity … shall be calculated
 on a basis of valuation agreed to between the Minister and the
 non-indigenous mining business concerned, which shall take into account
 the State's sovereign ownership of the mineral or minerals exploited or
 proposed to be exploited by the non-indigenous mining business
 concerned."


The Notice calls for all non-indigenous mining businesses to submit an
 indigenisation implementation plan to the Minister within forty five
 days of the date of the Notice, setting out the manner in which such
 businesses plan to achieve the indigenisation quota. Such plan, once
 approved by the Minister, must be implemented within six months of the
 date of the Notice.


Allan Dolan, Chairman and Interim President of Whetstone commented
 "Whetstone has factored in the impact of proposed Indigenisation into
 its business plan and, through Duration Gold Limited, has submitted its
 plan in compliance with the Indigenisation regulations and intends to
 comply with the law as in force from time to time."


Further information will be made available as and when discussions have
 been finalized.


Forward-Looking Statements


In the interest of providing Whetstone shareholders and potential
 investors with information regarding Whetstone including management's
 assessment of the future plans and operations of Whetstone, certain
 statements contained in this press release constitute forward-looking
 statements or information (collectively "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. In
 particular, this press release contains, without limitation,
 forward-looking statements pertaining to the following: the anticipated
 timing of the completion of the Acquisition and the Private Placement.


With respect to forward-looking statements contained in this press
 release, Whetstone has made assumptions regarding, among other things:
 its ability to obtain the necessary regulatory approvals to complete
 the Acquisition and the Private Placement and its ability to raise the
 necessary funds to complete the Private Placement. Although Whetstone
 believes that the expectations reflected in the forward looking
 statements contained in this press release, and the assumptions on
 which such forward-looking statements are made, are reasonable, there
 can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct.
 Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking
 statements included in this press release, as there can be no assurance
 that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which the
 forward-looking statements are based will occur. By their nature,
 forward-looking statements involve numerous assumptions, known and
 unknown risks and uncertainties that contribute to the possibility that
 the predictions, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking
 statements will not occur, which may cause Whetstone's actual
 performance and financial results in future periods to differ
 materially from any estimates or projections of future performance or
 results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These
 risks and uncertainties include, among other things, the following: the
 failure of Whetstone to obtain the necessary regulatory approvals to
 complete the Acquisition and the Private Placement; the failure of
 Whetstone to raise the necessary funds to complete the Private
 Placement; and general economic and political conditions in Canada,
 Zimbabwe and abroad. Readers are cautioned that this list of risk
 factors should not be construed as exhaustive.  These risk factors are
 discussed in Whetstone's information circular - proxy statement dated
 November 2, 2010, as filed with Canadian securities regulatory
 authorities.


The forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak
 only as of the date of this press release. Except as expressly required
 by applicable securities laws, Whetstone does not undertake any
 obligation to publicly update or revise any forward looking statements,
 whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. The
 forward-looking statements contained in this document are expressly
 qualified by this cautionary statement.


Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider
 (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange)
 accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.


To view this news release in HTML formatting, please use the following URL: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/April2011/01/c8612.html



p  /p p align="justify" please contact the Corporation or Charles Vivian of Pelham Bell  Pottinger: /p table tr valign="top" td align="left" Whetstone Minerals Ltd.br/ br/ Allan Dolan, Chairman and Interim Presidentbr/ and Chief Executive Officerbr/ Phone:  [phone] /td td align="right"   /td td align="left" Pelham Bell Pottingerbr/ br/ Charles Vivianbr/ Phone:  [phone] /td /tr /table p iTo be added to Whetstone's private email list, please contact /iia href="mailto:[e-mail]"[e-mail]/a/ii./i /p p   /p 

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