Standard & Poor's Announces Changes in the S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index

TORONTO, Dec. 22, 2010 (Canada NewsWire via COMTEX News Network) --

Standard & Poor's will make the following changes in the S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index after the close of trading on Wednesday, December 22, 2010:

    --  Avion Gold Corporation (TSXVN:AVR) will be removed from the
        index. The company will graduate to trade on the TSX under the
        same ticker symbol.
    --  Shear Minerals Ltd. (TSXVN:SRM) will trade under the new name
        Shear Diamonds Ltd. The shares will be consolidated on a
        1-for-10 basis. There is no change to the ticker symbol but the
        new CUSIP number will be 82086A 10 2. Please note this change
        is effective after close Wednesday, December 29, 2010.
    --  Merit Mining Corp. (TSXVN:MEM) will trade under the new name
        Huakan International Mining Inc. The new ticker symbol will be
        "HK" and the new CUSIP number will be 44330J 10 7. There is no
        consolidation of capital.

Company additions to and deletions from an S&P equity index do not in any way reflect an opinion on the investment merits of the company.

About S&P Indices

S&P Indices, a part of McGraw-Hill Financial, is the world's leading index provider maintaining a wide variety of investable and benchmark indices. Over $1.25 trillion is directly indexed to Standard & Poor's family of indices, which includes the S&P 500, the world's most followed stock market index, the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, the leading measure of U.S. home prices, the S&P Global BMI, an index with approximately 11,000 constituents, the S&P GSCI, the industry's most closely-watched commodities index and the S&P National AMT-Free Municipal Bond Index, the premier investable index for U.S. municipal bonds. For more information, please visit www.standardandpoors.com/indices.

About McGraw-Hill Financial

McGraw-Hill Financial, a part of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP), is a leading provider of research and analytical tools for investment advisors, wealth managers and institutional investors. It deploys the latest innovative technology strategies to deliver to customers a portfolio of cross-asset analytics, integrated desktop services, valuation and index benchmarks and investment recommendations in the rapidly growing $16 billion financial information, data and analytics market.

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SOURCE: Standard & Poor's Canadian Index Operations

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