Serabi Gold confident in Coringa project despite court ruling

The AIM-traded firm said that, in its view, current project development plans at Coringa were not affected by any suspension, and were continuing.

It also said the prospect of a suspension on licence issues would not affect the current expected timeline for the award of the installation licence for Coringa.

“As has been previously reported by the company, a public civil lawsuit was originally filed in September 2017 by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office (MPF) against Chapleau - a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company and the owner and operator of Coringa,” the board said in its statement.

“The MPF had sought to nullify the operating licence previously granted to Chapleau by the state environmental agency SEMAS.

“The court and judge who presided over a hearing on 26 April 2018, denied the MPF any action against SEMAS, the National Mining Agency (ANM) and Chapleau, and also denied any right to appeal the decision, thus allowing Chapleau to proceed with advancing Coringa.”

On 11 November last year, a further decision was rendered by the judge presiding over the case denying all of the requests filed by the MPF, before the MPF filed a further appeal on 10 December 2020.

On 6 December this year, the reporting judge of the appeal rendered a sole decision determining that ANM and SEMAS should refrain from granting Chapleau any future licences or titles on the Coringa project until it was proven that the project did not represent any harm to the indigenous tribes, or until a consultation with the indigenous tribes was made.

“The company advises that it has, since acquiring Coringa in December 2017, been in regular dialogue with and secured support for the project from FUNAI, the national agency established for managing the interest of indigenous people, and that the indigenous populations were present and spoke at the public hearing regarding Coringa held on 6 February 2020.

“In addition, the company advises that it is already in the process of preparing a consultation and impact report for SEMAS regarding the indigenous communities that are located in the regions around the project.”

Additionally, Serabi Gold said its legal advisers considered that certain proper legal processes had not been followed by the courts, and as such were preparing to file legal papers for the judge’s decision of 6 December to be reconsidered.

“In particular, the appeal decision should be rendered by a panel of judges and not a single judge and the lawsuit filed by the MPF relates only to existing licences and not the award of future licences.”

At 1156 GMT, shares in Serabi Gold were down 9.7% at 60.5p.