WELLINGTON, New Zealand,
March 26, 2018 /CNW/ - Chatham Rock
Phosphate Limited (TSXV: "NZP" and NZAX: "CRP" or the
"Company") wishes to advise shareholders of a correction to
an announcement that we made on March 23,
2018.
In that announcement we quoted directly from a release made by
Odyssey Marine to the United States Securities and Exchange
Commission. The release stated that "on March 21, 2018, the Superior Court of the Federal
Court of Administrative Justice in Mexico had ruled unanimously in favour of
Odyssey Marine, thereby nullifying the earlier denial of the
environmental permit application for the extraction of phosphate
sand from its "Don Diego" project".
We then went on to comment that "this meant that Don Diego is
now fully permitted".
We have been advised that the project is not yet fully
permitted. While it seems to be a logical assumption that the
project will now be fully permitted, we wish to withdraw our
statement and will leave it to our shareholders, stakeholders and
other readers of this release to draw their own conclusions as to
whether or not the Don Diego project will be fully permitted.
Following the Odyssey Marine release their stock traded in heavy
volumes and finished the week at $US9.20, up from $US3.80 before the announcement so it would
appear that Odyssey Marine shareholders have already formed their
own conclusion about the significance of the Mexican Superior Court
ruling and the likely outcome.
About Chatham Rock Phosphate
Chatham Rock Phosphate is the custodian of New Zealand's only material resource of
ultra-low cadmium, environmentally friendly pastoral phosphate
fertiliser. Our key role is connecting the resource with those who
need it.
Using this phosphate will support sustainable farming practices,
including healthier soil profiles and reduced accumulation of the
heavy metal cadmium, reducing carbon emissions and dramatically
lowering runoff to waterways and shrinking fertiliser needs over
time.
The resource represents one of New
Zealand's most valuable mineral assets and is of huge
strategic significance because phosphate is essential to maintain
New Zealand's high agricultural
productivity.
New Zealand's current access to
phosphate is vulnerable to economic and political events in the six
countries controlling 98% of the world's phosphate reserves, with
85% of the total in the Western Saharan state of Morocco.
Chatham takes very seriously
the responsibility vested in it through its mining permit to use
the world's best knowledge and technology to safely extract this
resource to help sustainably feed the world.
Our initial environmental consenting process independently
established extraction would have no significant impact on fishing
yields or profitability, marine mammals or seabirds.
Neither the Exchange, its Regulation Service Provider (as
that term is defined under the policies of the Exchange), or NZX
Limited has in any way passed upon the merits of the Transaction
and associated transactions, and has neither approved nor
disapproved of the contents of this press release.
SOURCE Chatham Rock Phosphate