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To: Giraffe who wrote (22573)	11/4/1998 10:05:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116753

French diplomat says relations with Peru poisoned LIMA, Nov 4 (Reuters) - France's ambassador in Lima said his government's relations with Peru were poisoned by an "unfair" court ruling over a disputed stake in Latin America's largest gold mine, a newspaper reported on Wednesday. A French state exploration firm had brought a $560 million compensation claim against Peru because the French government believed "there was interference in the judicial process" over the increasingly profitable Yanacocha mine, ambassador Antoine Blanca said. "The French government is convinced the ruling was made without fairness," Blanca said in an interview with Peru's leading financial daily Gestion. "This has gone down very badly with the French authorities. It has poisoned our relations." In June, after years of legal wrangling, Peru's Supreme Court ruled France's Bureau de Recherches Geoligiques et Mineres (BRGM) had to transfer a 25 percent stake in the Yanacocha mine to Denver's Newmont <NEM.N> and Peru's Buenaventura <BUEt.LM>. BRGM had tried to sell its shares in the gold mine to Australian firm Normandy <NDY.AX> but the court decided Newmont and Buenaventura, majority owners of Yanacocha, had rights of first refusal in any sale of the stake. The Peruvian government said it was surprised the compensation claim was against the state as the dispute involved local private firms. The share transfer, which the court said Newmont-Buenaventura should pay $109 million for, was important as Yanacocha is considered one of the region's most prized mining assets due to its low production costs, rising reserves and improving output. Yanacocha mined 30 metric tons of gold in the first nine months of the year, up 25 percent on the same period last year, and accounted for about 45 percent of total output in Peru, which is Latin America's top gold producer. Despite the case -- to be heard at the Washington-based International Center for the Solution of Investment Related Conflicts -- Blanca said he was working to improve bilateral ties. While firms in neighboring Spain and Britain are two of the heaviest foreign investors in Peru, French companies have little presence in the Andean nation and in recent years there have been few high-level official trips between the countries. The French ambassador said he wanted to arrange an official visit to Peru by a French minister hoping to "change the course" of the countries' diplomatic relations. Officials at the French embassy's press office were not immediately available to comment on the newspaper's report. 17:30 11-04-98 Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.