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Gold explorer Extorre Gold Mines (AMEX:XG) (NYSE MKT:XG) (TSE:XG) said Friday its board has approved a shareholder rights plan, effective today.

However, the plan is subject to shareholder ratification within six months in order to remain in place.

The plan is designed to protect shareholders and provide them with adequate time to consider and evaluate any unsolicited bid made for the company.

The rights will become exercisable only if a person, together with its affiliates, associates and joint actors, acquires or announces its intention to acquire beneficial ownership of shares which when aggregated with its current holdings total 20 per cent or more of the company's outstanding common shares, other than by a "Permitted Bid", Extorre said.

The rights would entitle the holder to purchase Extorre common shares at a substantial discount to their then prevailing market price.

Permitted bids under the plan must be made by way of a take-over bid circular prepared in compliance with applicable securities laws, and be made to all shareholders of the company for all common shares, and must remain open for a minimum of 60 days.

The company said it plans to hold a shareholders' meeting to approve the plan within six months.
Last week, Extorre said it was "encouraged by many of the early results" as it intersected more high-grade drill targets at its Cerro Moro project in the Santa Cruz province of Argentina.

Significant results from in-fill holes that the company completed at the Zoe target include hole MD1552, which intersected 5.00 metres at 54.0 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 7,155 g/t silver (197.1 g/t gold equivalent), including 2.45 metres at 109.3 g/t gold and 13,561 g/t silver (380.5 g/t gold equivalent).

In early April, Extorre announced the results of a preliminary economic assessment for potential mine development at Cerro Moro.

The study, which was based on a NI 43-101 mineral resource estimate from November, modelled a nine year mine to produce 850,000 gold ounces and 47 million ounces of silver.

This proposed mine would produce an average of 248,036 ounces gold equivalent per year for the first five years, at a cash cost of US$303 per gold equivalent, with a 1,300 tonne per day throughput.

In this scenario, the mine has a 24-month payback period and pretax internal rate of return of 63 percent and a pretax net present value, at a five percent discount, of $737.4 million.

At Cerro Moro, exploration with four drills is ongoing. The program is designed to boost total resources and to in-fill some areas for mine planning.

The November 2011 resource estimate for Cerro Morro gives indicated resources of 1.35 million ounces gold equivalent, comprising 2.42 million tonnes (Mt) at 7.4 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 498 g/t silver, for a gold equivalent grade of 17.4 g/t.

In the inferred category, the new estimate consists of 1.05 million ounces gold equivalent, comprising 4.74 Mt at 3.5 g/t gold and 172 g/t silver for a gold equivalent grade of 6.9 g/t gold.

Biotech firm

ImmunoCellular Therapeutics

(

OTC:IMUC

) reported that its common stock will now be listed on the New York stock Exchange, as the company seeks a broader investor base.

The California-based company develops novel therapies to fight against cancer using the immune system.

ImmunoCellular said it will begin trading on Wednesday, May 30 under the "IMUC" ticker on the NYSE:MKT.

Earlier this month,

NYSE Euronext

changed the exchange name from NYSE:AMEX to NYSE:MKT.

"This listing marks an important step in our company's development by giving us access to a broader investor base and should provide increased transparency and liquidity for investors owning our stock," ImmunoCellular chief executive Manish Singh said in a statement.

NYSE Euronext

's co-head of U.S. listings, Scott Cutler, said: "IMUC will be joining other growth oriented companies in the U.S. taking advantage of the NYSE's advanced and innovative market model to offer a premier value for listing and trading their stocks."

The listing approval is subject on the company continuing to meet all of the initial listing requirements on the day it is scheduled to commence trading.

On May 9, the company announced that it enrolled 189 patients for its Phase 2 clinical trial for its cancer based vaccine candidate.

It has initiated the trial in 25 sites, with patients enrolled in medical centers like Mass General Cancer Center and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

The company expects to enroll about 200 or more patients in the trial, and should be completed by the second quarter of 2012.

The Phase 2 trial of the cancer vaccine, ICT-107, is a double-blind, placebo-controlled, 2:1 randomized study designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the vaccine in patients with newly diagnosed GBM.

Rather than simply targeting a single tumor-specific antigen, the company's vaccine pursues multiple different antigens found on cancer stem cells (CSCs).

Cancer stem cells are thought to be the originators of common tumor cells. It is believed that destroying the CSCs will allow for longer survival without relapse.

Frontier Rare Earths

(TSE:FRO) said Friday that it plans to make a "normal course issuer bid" to buy back some of its outstanding ordinary shares.

The company said that, through the facilities of the Toronto Stock Exchange, shares to be purchased during the period of the bid from May 29 to May 28, 2013 will not exceed 1.0 million.

This equates to around 5.2 per cent of the public float, or shares not held by insiders or related parties, and 1.1 per cent of the outstanding shares as of May 18.

Frontier said the move is due to the fact "that the market may materially undervalue the ordinary shares of Frontier from time to time, and that the ordinary shares may trade in a price range which may not adequately reflect the value of such shares in relation to the business, assets and future prospects of Frontier."

Frontier said that management will determine the actual number of shares purchased during the course of the bid, as well as the timing of such purchases.

As of last Friday, there were roughly 89.56 million Frontier shares outstanding, and the public float was approximately 19.31 million shares.

Under the terms of the bid, Frontier will not acquire on any trading day more than 25 per cent of the average daily trading volume of shares for the most recently-completed six month period, being 17,973 shares.

All buybacks made through the bid will be done via the facilities of the TSX, or any alternative trading system.

Frontier said it will hold any shares purchased in treasury for resale or cancellation.

The bid has been authorized by Frontier's board to allow the company to buy shares if the purchases can be made on terms that will enhance the value of the remaining outstanding shares, according to management's opinion.

Frontier Rare Earths

is a mineral exploration and development company exclusively focused on the development of rare earths projects in Africa.

Its flagship asset is the Zandkopsdrift rare earth project, which is located in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa and is one of the largest undeveloped rare earth deposits worldwide.

Frontier has a direct 74 per cent interest and a current 95 per cent economic interest in Zandkopsdrift.

The company, which is aiming to become the next major producer of rare earths outside China after Lynas (

ASX:LYC

) and

Molycorp

(

NYSE:MCP

), said it is on track to complete a pre-feasibility study by the third quarter of this year, and a definitive feasibility report by next year's third quarter.

Zandkopsdrift's "key to success" is mineralogy - as the property contains conventional rare earth minerals, with 97 percent being monazite, for which commercial extraction processes already exist.

In February, the company announced the results of its preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for Zandkopsdrift, which gave a whopping net present value of $3.65 billion, after tax and royalties, at an 11 percent discount rate.

Internal rate of return for the project was seen at 52.5 percent, after tax and royalties, with a two year payback from start of production.

Average production was pegged at 20,000 tonnes of separated rare earth oxides per annum over a 20-year mine life with production due to start in the second half of 2015.