Bear Creek (BCM.v) has taken the formal legal step of starting arbitration proceedings against the country of Peru over the Santa Ana snafu, part of a forward corporate strategy that your humble scribe has commented upon previously. In short BCM may or may not have a case, but their decision to tie the future of Santa Ana to the future of Corani, as the company did last year when announcing the EIA approval of the bigger project was stupidity squared. Also in the same NR, this:
Recent media in Peru have reported false accusations by an individual distant from our communities wherein Bear Creek Mining officials supposedly paid locally elected officials based on an alleged document showing an agreement between the company and politicians in the Corani District. The alleged document is falsified from our duly registered, official agreement as disclosed in April, 2013 (see news release dated April 14, 2013). Police in Peru are investigating these claims and Bear Creek has both encouraged and is cooperating fully in this process.
Just in case you ever wondered if people actually read this humble corner of cyberspace, and all that. You seriously believe they’d bother to write something if it had stayed in Spanish language media only? Anyway, that sounds like a pretty strong response to the bribery accusations we relayed the other day and knowing a bit about how these contracts are drawn up, it’s sounds like a situation that’s a little strange but certainly not beyond the realms of possibility.