Pascua Lama
FYI, "Villar's principal" mentioned in the Legal Background section of the article is Jorge Lopehandia...
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pascua-Lama is an open pitmining project of gold, silver, copper and other minerals. Pascua Lama is located in the Andes mountains, south of Atacama, straddling the border between Chile and Argentina at an altitude of over 4,500 metres. Toronto-based Barrick Gold, the world's largest gold mining company, is developing the project. Due to its proximity to glaciers, Pascua-Lama has caused controversy and public protest in Chile, including demonstrations and petitions presented to the Chilean government. However, Chile and Argentina have both approved the project, following controversial yet thorough environmental reviews in both countries.
Pascua-Lama contains estimated deposits of 17 million ounces of gold and 635 million ounces of silver,[1] with 75 percent of the deposits in Chile and 25 percent in Argentina.[2]
Legal background
The title to the Pascua Project mining claims, or mensuras, has been the subject of a long-running Court action (Action No. C-1912-2001) in Chile found on the Court's website, initiated in 2001 by a professional mining agent, one Mr. Villar, against Barrick's Pascua project Company, Minera Nevada SA. In 2006, the Court ruled that the contract whereby Barrick obtained title to the Pascua claims was null and void, and the Pascua claims were ordered resurrected and returned to their original owner. The original owner is Villar's principal. In 2007, however, the Court of Appeal ordered the 2006 lower Court decision to be re-written exactly as it was originally written (the "new decision" Barrick referenced in their Press Release), and then re-delivered properly to Barrick as required by the Chilean Constitution. Contemporaneously, Barrick commenced a "parallel" Court action against the Judge that issued the original 2006 decision against Barrick, claiming, inter alia, that the Judge lacked the competence to issue the 2006 decision. The parallel case was resolved quickly, however, and on November 28, 2008 the Supreme Court of Chile ruled that the Judge's decision was proper and the remedy sought by Barrick was denied. The Court did Order, however, that the Clerk of the Court who originally failed to ensure the Constitutionally-proper delivery of the original 2006 Judgment be suspended and an investigation initiated into the circumstances surrounding the Clerk's apparent errors.
About two weeks later, just before the end of 2008, Peter Munk, Barrick's Chairman, sold one million of his shares in Barrick Gold Corporation.
The Court case is now moving to a final conclusion at the Supreme Court level in Santiago's 14th District Court. [Chile is a "Napoleonic Code" jurisdiction, similar to France and Quebec, and its system of law varies from that in England, Canada and the United States ("Common law" jurisdictions). Accordingly, its Court procedure is considerably different than that of Common law jurisdictions.]