Cornerstone Capital Resources Inc. (“Cornerstone” or “the
Company”) (TSXV:CGP) (Frankfurt:GWN) (Berlin:GWN)
(OTC:CTNXF) announces that it was notified late yesterday
of a decision by Ecuador’s Constitutional Court upholding a lower
court ruling that invalidated the environmental registration
granted by the Ministry of Environment (ME) to Ecuador’s state
mining company ENAMI EP for the initial (prior to drilling)
exploration phase in the “Los Cedros” Protected Forest (Bosque
Protector) at the Rio Magdalena project that forms 3 of the 9
concessions within the Cornerstone Ecuador S.A. (“CESA”) - ENAMI EP
strategic exploration alliance (the “ENAMI-CESA SEA”) in Northwest
Ecuador (See “About the ENAMI EP - Cornerstone Strategic
Exploration Alliance (SEA)”, below), in which CESA has the option
to earn up to an 84% interest.
Several prospective zones were defined at the
Rio Magdalena Project and initial results released on February 27,
2020 (NR 20-05:
https://cornerstoneresources.com/news-releases/20-05-high-potential-porphyry-cu-au-mo-targets-discovered-at-espejo-and-rio-magdalena-projects-within-the-enami-ep-strategic/).
As noted in Cornerstone’s March 4, 2021 news
release, work was suspended at the Rio Magdalena block pending a
decision in the Constitutional Court of Ecuador on a challenge
filed by ENAMI to a lower court decision that purported to
invalidate the environmental registration exploration permit
granted by ME for the Rio Magdalena block of concessions,
approximately 2/3rds of which are located within Los Cedros.
The background to the case was summarized in our
March 4, 2021 news release, as follows:
“By way of
background, in 2019 the Municipality of Cotacachi in Northwest
Ecuador (Province of Imbabura) brought an action in a local court
requesting that the court order ME to revoke ENAMI’s environmental
registration on the grounds that no prior consultations with local
communities had taken place. ENAMI defended the action on the basis
that no such consultations were required. This position was
supported by a friend of the court brief filed in the action by ME.
The lower court ruled against ENAMI.
ENAMI has challenged
the lower court decision in the Constitutional Court (acción
extraordinaria de protección) on the grounds that the lower court
erred by seeking to impose a requirement for prior environmental
consultation, when in fact the regulator, ME, currently does not
require a public consultation process during early stage
exploration phase (1st 4 years), and only an environmental
registration permit is required (including for scout drilling).
ENAMI’s position was supported by a friend of the court brief filed
in the Constitutional Court by ME. It is not known when the
Constitutional Court will render a decision in the Rio Magdalena
case.
A few facts: (1)
Enami and CESA have all the legally required permits to be doing
early stage exploration; (2) although not legally required, CESA
did consult the communities beforehand, with ME representatives in
attendance; (3) none of the Rio Magdalena lands are ancestral
indigenous lands, so no consultation for indigenous peoples is
required either under the Constitution or under International
Labour Organization (ILO) Treaty 169; (4) the lower court decision
confirmed that the Los Cedros Protected Forest was not within a
SNAP area and that there was no environmental damage found on the
concessions caused by either ENAMI or CESA; and (5) ENAMI and CESA
have the strong support of the local communities.”
Cornerstone is consulting with its Ecuadorian
legal counsel, with ENAMI and ME and the Chamber of Mines to
determine what rights and remedies Cornerstone and ENAMI may have,
including the possibility of the Constitutional Court decision
allowing for a new application for an environmental registration
subject to ME approved terms of reference for a public consultation
process that could be undertaken in the future to continue
exploration at Rio Magdalena.
Cornerstone will be filing a petition to the
Constitutional Court next week for clarification of the effect of
the decision.
Cornerstone will provide an update on Rio
Magdalena after such consultations when we have a clearer idea of
the impact of the decision on the project.
This decision does not affect the
Cascabel project, as Cascabel is not in a protected forest
and is already in the advanced (economic evaluation) stage of
exploration and has an environmental license obtained after prior
community consultations were undertaken pursuant to terms of
reference approved by ME.
About the ENAMI EP - Cornerstone Strategic Exploration
Alliance (SEA)
On June 14, 2016, Cornerstone announced that its Ecuadorean
subsidiary, Cornerstone Ecuador S.A. (“CESA”), had signed a Spanish
language Agreement, or Acuerdo de Colaboración e Inversión para el
Desarrollo Conjunto de Proyectos de Exploración Minera (the
“Agreement”) with Ecuador’s State Mining Company, Empresa Nacional
Minera Empresa Pública (“ENAMI EP”), replacing a letter of intent
announced April 14, 2015, and creating a structure to jointly
prospect and explore for mineral deposits in Ecuador (the
“ENAMI-CESA Strategic Exploration Alliance” or “ENAMI-CESA
SEA”).The Espejo, Rio Magdalena, and Playa Rica blocks were
identified and ranked by Cornerstone in 2015-2016 as highly
prospective after an exhaustive analysis of public and private
information available at the time, reserved by CESA after the
opening of the cadastral map and then the reservations were
transferred to ENAMI for inclusion in the SEA.On March 6, 2017,
Cornerstone announced that ENAMI EP had been granted a number of
mineral concessions in Imbabura and Carchi provinces in the same
area as the Cascabel (SolGold/Cornerstone) and Llurimagua
(Codelco/Enami) concessions, for exploration by the ENAMI-CESA SEA.
Nine concession titles totaling around 42,000 hectares were granted
in 2017 by the Ministry of Mining (now the Ministry of Energy and
Non-Renewable Natural Resources).For more information about the
ENAMI-CESA SEA, please see Cornerstone news release 16-12 dated
June 14,
2016 https://cornerstoneresources.com/news-releases/16-12-cornerstone-signs-definitive-joint-exploration-agreement-with-ecuadors-state-mining-company-enami-ep/About
CornerstoneCornerstone Capital Resources Inc. is a mineral
exploration company with a diversified portfolio of projects in
Ecuador and Chile, including the Cascabel gold-enriched copper
porphyry joint venture in northwest Ecuador. Cornerstone has a
20.8% direct and indirect interest in Cascabel comprised of (i) a
direct 15% interest in the project financed through to completion
of a feasibility study and repayable at Libor plus 2% out of 90% of
its share of the earnings or dividends from an operation at
Cascabel, plus (ii) an indirect interest comprised of 6.86% of the
shares of joint venture partner and project operator SolGold Plc.
Exploraciones Novomining S.A. (“ENSA”), an Ecuadoran company owned
by SolGold and Cornerstone, holds 100% of the Cascabel concession.
Subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions, including
SolGold’s fully funding the project through to feasibility, SolGold
Plc will own 85% of the equity of ENSA and Cornerstone will own the
remaining 15% of ENSA. |
Qualified Person
Yvan Crepeau, MBA, P.Geo., Cornerstone’s Vice
President, Exploration and a qualified person in accordance with
National Instrument 43-101, is responsible for supervising the
exploration program at the Rio Magdalena project for Cornerstone
and has reviewed and approved the information contained in this
news release.
Investor Inquiries
Further information is available on
Cornerstone’s website: www.cornerstoneresources.com and on
Twitter. For investor, corporate or media inquiries, please contact
ir@cornerstoneresources.ca, or:
Investor Relations: Mario Drolet; Email: Mario@mi3.ca; Tel.
(514) 904-1333
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Cautionary Notice:This news
release may contain ‘Forward-Looking Statements’ that involve risks
and uncertainties, such as statements of Cornerstone’s beliefs,
plans, objectives, strategies, intentions and expectations. The
words “potential,” “anticipate,” “forecast,” “believe,” “estimate,”
“intend”, “trends”, “indicate”, “expect,” “may,” “should,” “could”,
“project,” “plan,” or the negative or other variations of these
words and similar expressions are intended to be among the
statements that identify ‘Forward-Looking Statements.’ Although
Cornerstone believes that its expectations reflected in these
‘Forward-Looking Statements’ are reasonable, such statements may
involve unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors disclosed in
our regulatory filings, viewed on the SEDAR website at
www.sedar.com. For us, uncertainties arise from the behaviour of
financial and metals markets, predicting natural geological
phenomena and from numerous other matters of national, regional,
and global scale, including those of an environmental, climatic,
natural, political, economic, business, competitive, or regulatory
nature. These uncertainties may cause our actual future results to
be materially different than those expressed in our Forward-Looking
Statements. Although Cornerstone believes the facts and information
contained in this news release to be as correct and current as
possible, Cornerstone does not warrant or make any representation
as to the accuracy, validity or completeness of any facts or
information contained herein and these statements should not be
relied upon as representing its views after the date of this news
release. While Cornerstone anticipates that subsequent events may
cause its views to change, it expressly disclaims any obligation to
update the Forward-Looking Statements contained herein except where
outcomes have varied materially from the original statements.
On behalf of the Board, Brooke MacdonaldPresident and 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.
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