VANCOUVER, March 2 /PRNewswire/ - (TSXV: MWR) Since the
January 17, 2011 article appeared in
Stockwatch's "Street Wire", Mountain-West Resources has received
and had translated several documents that refute published comments
of Barrick and Stockwatch. There is extensive history on this
property dispute that goes back to 1997, not 2001.
"According to its communications manager Andy Lloyd, the lawsuit challenging the Pascua
Lama claims was defeated on Aug. 27,
2010, in the Court of Appeals in Chile." Correction: this
court session in August, 2010 was not in the Court of
Appeals. It was in Civil Court. It was in the
14th Civil Court and it disobeyed a Supreme Court
validation of the previous judgment. The result of title on
these claims will be made clear at the end of this release by the
publishing of the two expert land surveryor reports that state that
the Pascua claims currently belong to Mr. Lopehandia. Mr.
Villar has appealed this decision.
"Mr. Lloyd says, "the lawsuit does not affect the development
of Pascua Lama because the claims are not in the area of the
mine." This is 100% false. The claims of Mr.
Lopehandia/Mr. Villar represent the Chilean portion of Pascua Lama
which is 75% or more of the ore body.
"According to one questionable report, which could not be
verified, an illiterate Mr. Villar went to his lawyer's office in
1997….." Mr. Villar is a Chilean Mining Engineer and
that speaks for itself.
"On June 19, 2006, a Chilean
Judge Maria Isabel Reyes Kokisch determined the contract between
Barrick and Mr. Villar was null and void, and returned the claims
to Mr. Villar. Barrick appealed the
decision….." The result of the appeal dated
October 11, 2007 was delivered in
November, 2008 stating that the Judgment of 2006 stands and Barrick
is denied the return of the claims.
What should happen now, in our opinion, is that some analyst
should research Barrick's financial statements and SEC filings to
see if these judgments have ever been reported. To our
knowledge they have been omitted.
"On October 11, 2007, an
Appeals Court in Santiago
invalidated the lower court's ruling and gave the claims back to
Barrick." This court session did not give the claims back
to Barrick. The court was dealing with a procedural error,
not the return of the claims. The translated 2007 court
decision follows for the reader to make his or her own
assessment.
There are many issues in the sequence of events that have
transpired in this case which we are not mentioning at this
time. What we are including are the two professional land
surveyors' reports which state who owns Mina Pascua or Pascua Lama
as of December, 2010 and January, 2011. The Mina Pascua
claims (8,600 hectares) are in Region III and Region IV of
Chile. We are including the specific text of what these two
professionals have to say regarding ownership.
We, as a publicly-traded company, request that Stockwatch and
Barrick address the specific issues and provide answers.
[NOTE: This is PART of the news release. For the
full release, go to SEDAR.com - MWR
company profiles.]
On behalf of the Board of Directors,
BRENT JOHNSON,
President & CEO
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services
Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX
Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or
accuracy of this release.
SOURCE Mountain-West Resources Inc