Ecuador court gives green light for Silvercorp, Salazar’s El Domo project
The ruling removes the last major obstacle for the $250 million project, located 150 km northeast of Guayaquil.
Canadian Stans Energy Corp. (TSX‐V: HRE, OTCQX: HREEF) said Tuesday the Supreme Court of Kyrgyzstan has ruled against a local company claiming to be the rightful owner of the mining licence for the Toronto-based firm’s Kutessay II.
Baotau Hongbo Technology had argued its licence for the rare earth project now in hands of Stans Energy was taken away illegally and without notification.
“This ruling by the Supreme Court of Kyrgyzstan validates the company’s due diligence process before acquisition of the mining licence for Kutessay II in an auction in December 2009,” Stans’ interim President and CEO, Rodney Irwin, said in a statement.
Two years after the company acquired a 20-year mining license for the past-producing Kutessay II rare earth mine it moved to buy the processing plant used to refine output from the acquired mine.
A Stans Energy spokesman told MINING.com the firm is still contesting the legality of the revocation of its licence in Kyrgyzstan, after the government seized the project last week.
But in March last year, the country’s General Prosecutor’s Office (SPO) filed a statement of claim against the State Agency for Geology and Mineral Resources (SGA) seeking to invalidate the process by which Stans acquired its mining licence.
Kyrgyzstan´s economy is highly dependent on gold and other precious metals and stones exports, which account for about 34% of the country’s shipments.
Locations of Stans Energy’s Kyrgyzstan projects. (Image courtesy of Stans Energy)
