LONDON (Alliance News) - Metminco Ltd Tuesday warned the ongoing court proceedings concerning its mining access rights at the Mollacas mine in Chile may take "some months" to conclude, and said it is progressing its plans to form an alliance to develop the Los Calatos mine in Peru.
Metminco shares were down 15% to 0.145 pence per share on Tuesday morning.
Metminco won a favourable ruling from the Supreme Court of Chile in August, which overturned a ruling made by the regional Court of Appeal, granting mining access rights to the company, allowing Metminco to carry out operations at the Mollacas mine.
On Tuesday, the miner said it has been advised by its Chilean lawyers that it may take "some months" for that decision to be formally handed down by the Supreme Court and said there was "no certainty on timing".
In another blow, Metminco said it lodged another application for mining access rights for an area within the vicinity of the Mollacas project area which was rejected. The company said the application is not "critical" for the planned development of Mollacas but said it will appeal the decision.
The dispute over the mining access rights at Mollacas began back in March, when a Chilean court invalidated the company's licence to engage in mining activities in the area after it was found that the licence covered 'planted lands' and said the company had failed to secure the permission of the land owner.
At the company's Los Calatos project in Peru, Metminco said it is progressing its plan to form an alliance with a number of third parties to develop the mine. In October, a number of parties entered into a process with the view of forming the alliance to develop Metminco's wholly-owned project.
On Tuesday, the miner said: "The process is progressing with a number of selected parties currently conducting due diligence, certain of whom have undertaken site visits. The company for commercial and confidentiality reasons is not at liberty to disclose more at this stage."
Metminco said it has updated the geological mapping of the hydrothermal breccia (TD2) target which lies adjacent to the Los Calatos deposit as it prepares to drill the TD2 target. It said any resources found at TD2 would compliment the Los Calatos project and could lead to improved economics for the wider project.
Metminco said it had originally planned to drill the TD2 target before the end of the year but said this will not start until early 2016.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
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