Your reminder of the Law:
“The
IKN First Law of Mining News Releases: Considering that anything
contained in a mining news release is presented in the best possible way
for the company in question, any piece of information contained in a NR
that comes across in any way negative means the real news and/or events
behind it must be very, very bad indeed.”
And now, Almaden takes it to high levels:
VANCOUVER, B.C. Almaden Minerals Ltd. (“Almaden” or the “Company”; TSX: AMM; NYSE American: AAU) was today notified by SEMARNAT, Mexico’s environmental authority, that the permitting process for the Ixtaca project has been suspended pending resolution of the mineral title lawsuit reported by the Company on September 10 and April 15, 2019 (the “Lawsuit”).Under the Lawsuit, certain organisations have supported legal challenges against the Government of Mexico and the Mexican mineral title regime using the Company’s mineral claims as a basis for their challenges. The Lawsuit contends that the issuance of Almaden’s original mineral titles violated human rights and did not respect Mexico’s commitment to indigenous consultation under United Nations Instrument ILO 169.Almaden’s original mineral claims, which totalled approximately 14,000 hectares, were granted many years ago in full compliance with Mexican law and in the same manner as all existing mineral titles in Mexico. In April, 2019, a Lower Court in Puebla State ruled that the Mexican mineral title system is unconstitutional and as a result these original mineral claims should be held exclusively for Almaden until such time as consultation can be completed. This Lower Court decision has now been appealed by the Mexican Congress, Senate, Secretary of Economy and Mining authorities, as well as Almaden as an affected party. The Lawsuit remains before the Courts.Although the Company understands that SEMARNAT’s mandate is restricted to the review of the technical merits of the environmental permit application, on October 4, 2019, SEMARNAT requested the Lower Court in Puebla to provide information on the Lawsuit. Almaden has reviewed the report provided by the Lower Court to SEMARNAT, which informs SEMARNAT that the purpose of the decision is to protect the complainant’s agrarian rights and lands, in order that the complainant is not affected by the mining concessions or possible mining activities. The complainant is a community of about 150 people, located well outside of the Ixtaca project impact area.Having reviewed the Court’s response to SEMARNAT, on October 24, the Company submitted a writ to SEMARNAT in part to confirm that the Company completed the necessary steps to abandon its mineral claims in the area of the complainant in 2017, and has no interest in holding any mineral claims in this area.Almaden is studying measures it can take to resolve this suspension.
By the way, there’s a reason why they only refer to the complainants as “a community of about 150 people”, rather than name the community. That’s because their mine project name is “Ixtaca” and the community is called “Ixtacamaxtitlán” and what with the name being the same, it would be that much tougher to BS you friendly investor people with their one-sided guff and nonsense. The locals have been dead set against this project for years and not just because they feel like annoying a bunch of gringos. The town didn’t just turn up as Semarnat’s door and ask them not to emit the permit, either. Instead they presented 17 technical documents to the Mexican environmental authority that they state as a whole, demonstrate that the mine project is a serious threat to regional biodiversity.