MOUNTAIN-WEST RESOURCES RESPONDS TO STOCKWATCH ARTICLE DATED JANUARY 17, 2011: "Mountain-West tries for piece of Barrick's Pascua Lama"
VANCOUVER, March 2 /PRNewswire/ - (TSXV: MWR) Since the January 17, 2011 article appeared in Stockwatch's "Street Wire", Mountain-West Resources has received and had translated several documents that refute published comments of Barrick and Stockwatch. There is extensive history on this property dispute that goes back to 1997, not 2001.
"According to its communications manager Andy Lloyd, the lawsuit challenging the Pascua Lama claims was defeated on Aug. 27, 2010, in the Court of Appeals in Chile." Correction: this court session in August, 2010 was not in the Court of Appeals. It was in Civil Court. It was in the 14th Civil Court and it disobeyed a Supreme Court validation of the previous judgment. The result of title on these claims will be made clear at the end of this release by the publishing of the two expert land surveryor reports that state that the Pascua claims currently belong to Mr. Lopehandia. Mr. Villar has appealed this decision.
"Mr. Lloyd says, "the lawsuit does not affect the development of Pascua Lama because the claims are not in the area of the mine." This is 100% false. The claims of Mr. Lopehandia/Mr. Villar represent the Chilean portion of Pascua Lama which is 75% or more of the ore body.
"According to one questionable report, which could not be verified, an illiterate Mr. Villar went to his lawyer's office in 1997….." Mr. Villar is a Chilean Mining Engineer and that speaks for itself.
"On June 19, 2006, a Chilean Judge Maria Isabel Reyes Kokisch determined the contract between Barrick and Mr. Villar was null and void, and returned the claims to Mr. Villar. Barrick appealed the decision….." The result of the appeal dated October 11, 2007 was delivered in November, 2008 stating that the Judgment of 2006 stands and Barrick is denied the return of the claims.
What should happen now, in our opinion, is that some analyst should research Barrick's financial statements and SEC filings to see if these judgments have ever been reported. To our knowledge they have been omitted.
"On October 11, 2007, an Appeals Court in Santiago invalidated the lower court's ruling and gave the claims back to Barrick." This court session did not give the claims back to Barrick. The court was dealing with a procedural error, not the return of the claims. The translated 2007 court decision follows for the reader to make his or her own assessment.
There are many issues in the sequence of events that have transpired in this case which we are not mentioning at this time. What we are including are the two professional land surveyors' reports which state who owns Mina Pascua or Pascua Lama as of December, 2010 and January, 2011. The Mina Pascua claims (8,600 hectares) are in Region III and Region IV of Chile. We are including the specific text of what these two professionals have to say regarding ownership.
We, as a publicly-traded company, request that Stockwatch and Barrick address the specific issues and provide answers.
[NOTE: This is PART of the news release. For the full release, go to SEDAR.com - MWR company profiles.]
On behalf of the Board of Directors,
BRENT JOHNSON,
President & CEO
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
SOURCE Mountain-West Resources Inc
Share this article