1st Jul 2014 10:29
LONDON (Alliance News) - Metminco Ltd Tuesday said the Supreme Court in Chile has rejected the company's application to appeal a recent decision which found that a granted First Easement Extension, allowing the company to engage in further mining at the Mollacas Copper Project, was invalid.
The exploration and development copper-mining company, with operations in Peru and Chile, said the Supreme Court made the decision on the basis that the Court of Appeal was right to say that the extension cannot be granted without the land holder's permission.
In March, the company said that the original judgement was based on a technicality related to a Judge's decision to approve the First Extension over the property in November 2011 when it was not owned by Metminco, despite the company being a related party and despite a change in the area and purpose of activities since the original easement.
Metminco said it has now lodged an appeal against the decision, stating that the review panel only considered one of the arguments presented in the case prior to making its determination.
The company has also lodged an appeal to the Chilean Constitutional Tribunal for a decision on the Court of Appeal's application of various civil and mining codes in making its original ruling. Should the company's application be successful then the courts should not be able to rely on the Court of Appeal's interpretation of these codes.
Metminco holds title to 20 exploitation concessions covering the Mollacas deposit and holds 179 hectares of land next to its proposed open pit operation, which is currently on private land.
Metminco shares were down 11.2% to 0.888 pence on Tuesday morning, putting it amongst the top AIM All-Share fallers.
By Tom McIvor; [email protected]; @TomMcIvor1
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