RE:old news VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - July 26, 2013) - Ecometals Ltd. (TSX VENTURE:EC)(BERLIN:GDQ)(FRANKFURT:GDQ) (the "Company") announced today that it had entered into a heads of agreement with Wogen Pacific Ltd. ("Wogen"), the Hong Kong based affiliate of established metals trader, Wogen Resources Ltd., headquartered in London. Under this agreement, Wogen will take up to eleven shipments of up to 45,000 mt each, of the Company's manganese mineralized material taken from the manganese stockpiles at Serro do Navio in Amapa State, Brazil. The costs of excavation, rail freight from the Company's site to the coast, transport by truck from the railhead to Santana Port, storage and stevedoring expenses and ocean freight will be borne by Wogen. Profits net of these costs will be split between Wogen and Ecometals Manganes do Amapa, the Brazilian subsidiary of the Company which holds the Company's investment in the Serra do Navio project.
Responsibility for operations in Brazil will rest with Ecometals' office in Macapa to which William Lamarque, the Company's CEO relocated several weeks ago. Arrangements for ocean freight and the subsequent movement of the manganese mineralized material, together with international marketing, will be the responsibility of Wogen.
Work begins on Monday, July 29, 2013 to excavate 90,000 mt in a vertical section, from the stockpile known as Grosso 30. This material will be sampled according to protocols agreed between the parties, analyzed by AIS, an independent assayist and placed in eight heaps adjacent to the railway to facilitate its subsequent loading into railcars. This preliminary stage is expected to take three weeks. Export operations are expected to commence immediately thereafter, subject to certain final Government approvals.
Commenting on these developments, Ecometals CEO, William Lamarque, said: "We are delighted that the first major activity at Serro do Navio in seven years will begin next week. This has not been an easy project with vexatious challenges to our title and related legal issues having caused us major headaches, costs and delays. It is a huge tribute to our local management to have surmounted these. Our agreement with Wogen is a landmark event on Ecometals' long road to revenues which now look achievable as early as September 2013. We are hopeful that proceeds from sales will in due course enable us to begin work again at Rio Zarza, our fully permitted gold exploration project in Southern Ecuador, where we have been held up this year due to other investment commitments."