Oct
17
EXPLORATION
Edgewater Resources was in damage control mode after headlines in Spain suggested its gold project had been rejected.
Author: Kip Keen
Posted:
Wednesday
,
16 Oct 2013
HALIFAX, NS (MINEWEB) –
Edgewater Exploration said Wednesday its predicament in Spain over permitting is not so dire as headlines in Spanish media may suggest.
“Our interpretation is that it’s not as fatal as the headlines might read if you stick them into Google Translate,” Edgewater president and CEO George Salamis told Mineweb in an interview Wednesday.
Headlines in Spanish media leaned heavily against Edgewater in recent days, declaring its Corcoesto gold project rejected or canceled by the Galician government.
But Salamis said his understanding of the situation is that the Galician government intended to pull Corcoesto off a fast-track permitting process, not outright reject the project.
The Galician government had earlier this year set conditions for Edgewater to stay on the fast track, Salamis said.
One of the stipulations was that Edgewater show it had, roughly speaking, $30 million to work with, or about a quarter the projected cost to build Corcoesto, where Edgewater has outlined over a million ounces gold in open pit resources.
That, however, put Edgewater in a bind, Salamis said. It had not yet finished a feasibility study of the project and meantime financial markets were especially tough for juniors seeking funding, a process made harder without a feasibility study in hand.
Salamis said that when the Galician government made the stipulation, it told them that it was “going to be a hurdle for us to get there.”
As it stands Salamis said Edgewater was looking for clarity from the Galician government. Contradicting Spanish media reports, he said Edgewater had yet to be contacted by the government about a formal decision on fast track permitting.
Edgewater met with the government Monday, Salamis said, and was told there would be consequences for not meeting requirements the government had set earlier in the year, but not told what those consequences would be.
Salamis said he expected Edgewater could continue to permit the project through the regular channel, which he said typically takes a year, versus the six to nine months under fast-tracked permitting on projects that are declared to hold strategic interest to Galicia.
Still, Salamis noted the project would not move forward until Edgewater had a clear view of its prospects for permitting Corcoesto, which has both vocal supporters and opponents in Galicia.
Edgewater’s shareprice has shed some 50 percent since late last week.
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