FYI
MAG Silver (MVG) (MAG.to) given 48 hours to get out of Cinco de Mayo
A bit of a stop press report, arriving at this desk late Sunday afternoon. According to reports, The ‘El Barzón’ group that had its leader and his wife assassinated recently and claim that MAG silver (MAG.to) (MVG) was behind the killing, yesterday afternoon resolved to kick MAG out of its Cinco de Mayo project. Here’s Mexico’s newspaper of record, Reforma (13):
Landholders from Benito Juárez in the municipality of Buenaventura, decided during an official assembly to expel the Canadian mining company Cascabel (wholly owned subsidiary of MAG Silver) and establish a 100 year prohibition on exploration by any mining company that wishes to establish operations in the zone.
“This agreement, reached with 240 of the 400 total landowners present, is homage to the sacrifice of the life of our compatriot Ismael Solorio and of his wife Martha Solis, assassinated in the environmental fight of this zone”, commented Luz Estelka Castro, the groups lawyer.
The 240 landholder members means that quorum was made and of the 240 present the vote was reportedly unanimous. Here are more details from this report (14) from Mexico’s daily Progreso.
In the proclamation of the meeting of November 17th 2012, registered in the National Agrarian Register that finished at 2pm, the followed was approved: Restrict permits of any mining company for a period of 100 years for exploration or mineral production, and if in the future a new application is made to explore or produce it must be accompanies by studies, permits and corresponding authorizations and approved unanimously by the assembly.
“The company El Cascabel, MAG Silver o Majors and/or its subsidiaries are not authorized to explore or produce...A period of 48 hours is established, from the end of this meeting, for the company to withdraw all its machinery, equipment and materials and well as its personnel from from the Benito Juárez area”.
“This courageous and firm decision of the community is the base to confront any attempt by the mining company to pressure legally, paralegally or illegally in order to extract the mineral wealth from the Benito Juárez area, municipality of Buenaventura. At the same time it is also a call of hope for communities all over Mexico and Latin America that face the voracity of transnational extractive companies, hungry for basic materials and natural resources.”
I think it’s fair to say that MAG has a problem.