Had a couple of mails in the inbox last night and this morning over this NR out of Belo Sun (BSX.to) that hit after hours. It’s not a long one, so here’s the whole thing:
Belo Sun Receives Ruling From Federal Regional Justice in Altamira
TORONTO, Sept. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Belo Sun Mining Corp.
(“Belo Sun” or the “Company”) (TSX: BSX) reports that the Federal
Regional Justice in Altamira has ruled that the Construction License
(“LI”) and Environmental License (“LP”) related to the Volta Grande
project granted by SEMAS (State Environmental agency for the government
of Para) remains valid, subject to completion of the Indigenous study,
primary data collection and consultations with Indigenous communities
(see press release dated December 6, 2017). The Federal Regional
Justice in Altamira clarified that the permitting authority going
forward will be IBAMA (Federal Environmental Agency) rather than SEMAS.
Belo Sun at this stage is seeking clarification and a response from the
Federal Justice and both SEMAS and IBAMA.
Peter Tagliamonte, President and CEO of Belo
Sun, stated that, “Belo Sun is happy to work with both IBAMA and/or
SEMAS in its permitting process as well as with the local municipality,
communities and Indigenous groups, with a goal of building the Volta
Grande project for the benefit of all stakeholders.”
About the Company
That’s a decent amount of spin for so few lines of script and anyone who confuses this with good news doesn’t have a good command of Portuguese. If you do, you go to the good dozen news reports (here’s one of the more complete ones) to find out that:
- BSX “forgot” to use The S Word. They told us the their licence “…remains valid, subject to…” etc etc. In other words, it’s still suspended.
- The ruling basically transfers the environmental decision on Volta Grande from the regional office (SEMAS) to the national office, called Ibama.
- The ruling came from a case brought to the judges by the Para Federal Ministry (Ministério Público Federal no Pará), who wanted the decision process moved because SEMAS only had the authority to suspend the licence, not rescind or annul it.
- Up to now the licences are in suspension. Now they get to be thrown out once and for all and this farce put to sleep forever. And even if by some miracle BSX is favoured in the final Ibama decision (miracles do happen, but don’t make them an investment thesis) the local opposition to a nationally awarded permit would make it impossible to execute there.
So now you know.