Interesting that the former CEO of GG who now owns big chucks of both US Gold and Minera is planning a merger of the two and renaming with his name......now I can't imagine he would put his name on the line unless he plans to make this new company big, big, big. Disclaimer....I do own UXG and am hoping it does get big, bigger and biggest!

(Kitco News) - Rob McEwen says the more he studied Minera Andes Inc. and US Gold Corp., the more it seemed like the companies would benefit from a merger.

So on Tuesday, the companies announced a proposal from McEwen, the chairman, chief executive officer and the largest shareholder of both US Gold and Minera Andes, to combine the companies into a high-growth, low-cost mid-tier silver producer focused in the Americas.

McEwen’s investment in the combined company, based on market closes from Monday, would be approximately $345 million, the companies said in a news release. If the transaction is completed, the new entity would be named McEwen Mining Inc.

Minera (TSX: MAI; OTC.BB: MNEAF) is an exploration company looking for gold, silver and copper in Argentina with three significant assets. This includes a 49% ownership in the San Jose Mine that last year produced 5.3 million ounces of silver and 84,000 ounces of gold, according to the company’s Web site. McEwen owns 31% of the shares in Minera Andes.

US Gold (NYSE and TSX: UXG) is an exploration company looking for gold and silver in the Americas and working toward production from the El Gallo Project in Mexico and Gold Bar Project in Nevada. McEwen owns 20% of the shares in the company.

“I looked at it and said Minera has a passive investment in a mine that produces an income stream now,” McEwen said in an interview with Kitco News. “But it doesn’t have a pipeline of projects.

“And US Gold has a pipeline of projects without production. And they both have good exploration potential….The more I looked at it, the more I thought by putting them together, you could improve the growth profile for both companies.”

Further, the market capitalization, trading liquidity and balance-sheet strength would be improved, he said. There would be geographical diversification with projects and mines in the U.S., Mexico and Argentina. A merger would streamline operations, including administration. McEwen said it also would put his focus one company rather than two.

"The combined company would be low-cost and possess a significant pipeline of production growth in addition to owning an exciting portfolio of exploration properties,” he said. “Importantly, this combination would move us one step closer to our goal of qualifying for inclusion in the S&P 500 Index by 2015."

McEwen said a merged company already would meet five of seven of the criteria for S&P inclusion and would have to focus on two more: posting four consecutive quarters of earnings and reaching market capitalization of $3.5 billion. S&P companies must be American, so if the merged company were listed, it would be the second precious-metals company in the index.

“I think there is a big hunger and a void in the marketplace for an American precious-metals company,” McEwen said. “I’d like us to satisfy that hunger.”

McEwen was encouraged that share prices of both US Gold and Minera were higher by around 5% as he spoke with Kitco News this morning. He is the former chairman and chief executive of Goldcorp, helping transform it from a collection of smaller companies into one of the world’s largest producers.