Ecometals gets positive court ruling on Serra do NEcometals gets positive court ruling on Serra do Navio
Ticker Symbol: C:EC
Ecometals gets positive court ruling on Serra do Navio
Ecometals Ltd (2) (C:EC)
Shares Issued 72,157,149
Last Close 5/21/2010
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Tuesday May 25 2010 - News Release
Ms. Fran Scola reports
BRAZIL COURT DECISION-A MAJOR STEP FORWARD IN ECOMETALS'STOCKPILED MANGANESE MINERALISED MATERIAL PROJECT
Ecometals Ltd. confirms that on May 14, 2010, the State Judgeof the 4th Civil Court of the District Court of Macapa, State of Amapa, Brazil,ruled that the responsibility for any environmental liabilities arising out ofthe former mining activities carried out by ICOMI at the Serra do Navio minebelongs exclusively to Alto Tocantins Mineracao Ltda (Tocantins). This courtdecision removes Ecometals from any potential claim in respect of anyhistorical environmental liabilities or rehabilitation associated with theformer mining activities at the Serro do Navio manganese mine.
The environmental legacy from the former ICOMI mine at Serrado Navio involves rehabilitation of the site, which was initiated but nevercompleted by Tocantins. The State Judge has ordered that Tocantins must presenta Plan for Recovery of Degraded Areas (PRAD) within 90 days, to be reviewed andapproved by the Public Prosecution Service of the State of Amapa. ATML are thenlegally bound to complete the PRAD to the satisfaction of Regulatoryauthorities.
This judicial decision removes an obstacle that has beenuntil now delaying the issuance of environmental permits to Ecometals, whichare required before the Company can begin to commercialize the 3.3 milliontonnes of stockpiled manganese mineralized material at Serro do Navio. Prior tothis decision, the Environmental Agency of the State of Amapa, which isresponsible for issuing the permits, had requested the Company to present aPRAD for the Serra do Navio mine, based on its misunderstanding that theCompany had joint obligation with Tocantins for any historical liabilitiesand/or rehabilitation work arising out of the former mining activities at theSerro do Navio manganese mine.
Ecometals has independently prepared an EnvironmentalManagement Plan for the processing and shipping of the stockpiled manganesemineralized material, which is considered a low impact activity. The stockpiledmanganese mineralized material at Serro do Navio is owned by EcometalsManganese do Amapa Ltda, whose shares are 66% owned by Ecometals, with thebalance of the shares owned by Tocantins.
CEO Fran Scola said, "With the clarification of thisissue we are of the opinion that the issuance of the required EnvironmentalPermits to start this project has now moved a good step forward. Development ofthe manganese project will be a positive result for all stakeholders."
2010 Canjex Publishing Ltd.