Monday, December 11, 2006 SMI welcomes SC ruling on Lepanto claim to copper project
A GIANT Australian-backed mining venture last week announced it has finally settled the issue of ownership rights over a huge copper and gold project in Tampakan.
Gavan Collery, Indophil Resources NL corporate affairs manager, said in a statement that the Supreme Court reaffirmed the rights of Indophil's operating associate Sagittarius Mines Inc. (SMI) to the Columbio Financial or Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAA).
In December 2001, then Environment Secretary Heherson Alvarez approved the granting of Columbio FTAA 02-95-XI from another Australian firm, Western Mining Corp.-Philippines, to Sagittarius.
An FTAA certificate gives a holder exclusive rights to conduct mineral exploration in a contract area.
Lepanto Consolidated Mining Inc. later on questioned the transfer of the rights before the Court of Appeals, which in 2003 dismissed it.
Lepanto had appealed the ruling before the Supreme Court.
But recently, Collery said the High Tribunal dismissed the last outstanding petition by Lepanto challenging the 2001 transfer of the Tampakan project interest to Sagittarius.
Prior court decisions of 2004 and 2005 had declared "with finality" that the Columbio-FTAA is valid and constitutional.
Before these decisions, Lepanto made a separate administrative appeal to the Supreme Court to have the Court of Appeals reconsider the transfer.
This last course of action has now been dismissed, Collery said.
Tony Robbins, Managing Director of Indophil, was bullish on the development.
"The latest decision of the Supreme Court is a pleasing outcome which reconfirms that Indophil and its Philippine partners are free to continue to advance the Tampakan copper-gold project," Robins said.
The Tampakan project, which is meeting strong oppositions from various groups including the local Catholic Church, straddles the towns of Tampakan in South Cotabato, Columbio in Sultan Kudarat and Kiblawan in Davao del Sur.
Indophil recently completed an A$27 million pre-feasibility study on the Tampakan copper-gold project, confirming its position as one of the world's outstanding new large-scale copper-gold deposits.
Sagittarius expects to exploit the Tampakan resources not later than 2010.BSS
