A judge yesterday ruled that Barrick (ABX) has to show the paperwork in its possession to prove it owns the Pascua Lama gold mine concession (photo of the order here). It’s the latest chapter in a very long running saga that could take up acres of room here (and already has plenty of bandwidth dedicated to it on the interwebnetpipes, go Google the keywords for yourself and have fun in Spanish and English) which can be condensed into just one sentence: A guy named Jorge Lopehandía has maintained for the longest time that he is the rightful owner of the property and that Barrick is an usurper. The judge says that ABX has until the end of this week to produce proof of ownership, else its Chilean staff face arrest.
It’s a long-running issue, hardly novel but with yesterday’s punctual event this one might get fun. We’ll watch for a week and see what happens.