TO ALL
The following news story released by Reuters November 24 1997 19:05
CARACAS, Nov 24 (Reuters) - A long-awaited court decision
on the Las Cristinas gold deposits will likely be delayed
beyond late November and into next year, a legal source said on
Monday.
"There's not even a draft of the decision circulating in
the court yet. I don't expect a decision until well into the
new year," said the source, who is close to the case.
Placer Dome Inc and Crystallex International Corp
have been anticipating the Supreme Court's ruling on
their rival claims to Las Cristinas gold deposits in a legal
dispute initiated earlier this year.
A Supreme Court spokeswoman told Reuters last month that
the court would make its long-awaited ruling on the rights for
Las Cristinas by the third week of November.
"We would like this to be resolved before the end of the
year to start talks with the investors and financiers," Felipe
Ruiz, Placer Dome's Latin America public affairs director, told
Reuters at an international gold symposium in Caracas.
Oswaldo Ruiz, vice-president of Crystallex, also said he
hoped for a prompt decision, within the next four to eight
weeks.
The Supreme Court starts its Christmas recess December 19
and returns to work in the second week of January.
Both Placer Dome and Crystallex officials continued to
insist that they were optimistic of final victory in the legal
battle.
"From the legal point of view, our case is pretty solid and
after reviewing the situation we saw that the risk of our being
wrong is very low," Placer Dome's Ruiz said.
"We are confident of a positive decision," Crystallex's
Ruiz said.
Crystallex officials say the Supreme Court's ruling will
refer to the overall rights of the Cristinas 4 and 6
concessions, while Placer officials insist the court has
already confirmed its gold rights and is now considering the
copper rights.
Placer held a ground-breaking ceremony at the site of its
70-30 joint venture with the Venezuelan government at Las
Cristinas in August.
Placer has already invested $70 million in the project,
which is to cost $600 million overall with production starting
in the second half of 1999, Ruiz said.
Offers by Crystallex to negotiate an out-of-court
settlement to the dispute have been dismissed by Placer, but
Crystallex's Ruiz said the offer was still open.
"Unfortunately, there's been no progress on this, but we
always have the possibility of reaching an agreement through
sitting down and discussing the matter," he said.
According to Placer, Las Cristinas contains proven gold
reserves of 11.8 million ounces. |
