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Grenville and High Ridge wage war for dirt road in Peru
2007-10-22 16:01 ET - Street Wire
Also Street Wire (C-HRR) High Ridge Resources Inc
by Stockwatch Business Reporter
Judges, courts and lawyers exist to answer one question: who owns what? In mining, the various different rights, such as mining rights, exploration rights and surface rights, complicate the question. In a busy mining district, with several companies competing to lock up these rights, disputes are inevitable.
In the San Mateo area of Peru, two companies with Vancouver addresses, High Ridge Resources Inc. and Grenville Gold Corp., have landed in just such a dispute. They are fighting over a dirt track that leads to their claims in the area. Grenville says it bought the private road in July as part of a larger agreement for surface rights with Viso, a town in the area, while High Ridge is convinced that the road is a public one.
The problem is the gate and the armed guards at the head of the road. High Ridge says the guards started turning it away from the road in June, and, as a consequence, it cannot get to its properties. It made the problem public in a news release reported in Stockwatch on Oct. 15, 2007.
The wrinkle is that High Ridge complained to the authorities in July, and, according to High Ridge, criminal proceedings have started against Grenville Gold's chief executive officer Paul Gill and its chairman Leonard De Melt. "It's a serious situation," insists Gary Anderson, High Ridge's CEO.
Mr. Gill, on the other hand, likens it all to jaywalking. He also says that he has not received any information directly from a Peruvian official. He explains that his company bought the road, along with other surface rights in the area, from Viso. After Grenville bought the land, its insurers warned it that it would be liable if anyone got hurt using its roads. Mr. Gill passed these concerns along to Grenville's Peruvian subsidiary. "I said, 'Look, here's what our insurers are saying, what are you going to do?' and their response was to establish a checkpoint," he says. "... We feel it's surface rights we own, private roads [and] we can establish those checkpoints."
"They know it's public," Mr. Anderson says. One of High Ridge's lawyers, David Mitchell, thinks he can support this claim. He has a document from the Peruvian Ministry of Transportation that says the road is public. Mr. Mitchell added, "From High Ridge's point of view, what we want out of the criminal proceedings is to have the blockade lifted so that we can get access to the property." He did not know what criminal penalties Grenville's people could face because of High Ridge's complaint.
Greg Smith, another High Ridge lawyer, says, "Our lawyers have been very careful about what has been stated in High Ridge's news releases and are confident that the information in there is accurate and supportable." These news releases include the claim that the road is public.
Mr. Gill thinks he has done his homework too. "You have to be very, very careful about who says they own what," he says, but he is confident that his company owns the road. "Things are heating up quite a bit now because you have properties that were staked by more than one group at the same time."
Mr. Gill complains that High Ridge aired the problem publicly. "What is [the new release] really intended to do? Is it intended to affect our stock price? Those are the questions I have. I'm not saying I know the answer," he says. "... If there's an issue in Peru, it should be solved in Peru."
Mr. Anderson and Mr. Gill, strangely, seem to agree here. "Everyone I talk to figures this some pissing match between us ... [but] it's between Grenville and the law," says Mr. Anderson. When asked why his company, and not Grenville, put out the press release, Mr. Anderson answered: "We had to. We had to shed a light on it, of one of the situations going on there." He then recommended using the Bullboards on the Stockhouse website for more information.
(A user claiming to be a stripper at a savoury Vancouver nightspot wrote one of the latest posts in Grenville Gold's Bullboard forum.)
Some questions remain unanswered. High Ridge complains of a gate going up in June, but Grenville did not buy the land from Viso until July. When asked who was at the gate in June, Mr. Gill said, "I can't answer that because I don't know." High Ridge says Grenville's people were at the gate.
Mr. Gill met Mr. Anderson in mid-July, when, according to Mr. Mitchell, they discussed the gate. The meeting obviously did not resolve the problem. The sticking point was not money; representatives from both companies say there was no talk of a toll.
Mr. Smith suggests High Ridge will do more than make a criminal complaint. Mr. Gill says, "There's a long, long history, and lawsuits never end, but possession is possession." He was answering questions about the agreement with Viso, but the statement is as apt an answer as any to High Ridge's threat.
Background
This is hardly the most exciting event in the area's history. The former mines High Ridge and Grenville are trying to explore had to hire 40 armed guards to defend themselves from Shining Path in 1990. Two years later, their small militia was no longer enough, and the terrorist threat forced the mines to shut down.
Mr. Anderson was a financial adviser at Canaccord Capital Corp. in Vancouver from 1992 until 2004, when he left to run High Ridge. From 1990 to 1992, he worked at Canaccord's predecessor, L.O.M. Western Securities Ltd. Before that, he was at Canadian International Securities Corp.
Mr. Gill is also a director of Lomiko Resources Inc. and is a former director of Norsemont Mining Inc. Mr. De Melt, Grenville's chairman, also sat on Norsemont's board.
Mr. De Melt became involved in Grenville when Grenville bought most of his Peruvian mining company, Inversiones Mineras Alexander SAC, in 2006. He received one million Grenville shares for his half of the Peruvian subsidiary.
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Gary Anderson is very confused about the laws of Peru. In small outback communities it is alleged, the Police and Judicery can be hired to process whatever papers anyone desires. The said criminal complaint was never deliverd to said person`s, never delivered to Gill, De Melt, Nunez,Rodreges. It only upon reading the misleading, High Ridge Press Release that Gill,De Melt and the others became aware of this. Grenville travelled to the outback community and asked for a copy of said Criminal Complaint. The signitures on the documents were forged. The Lima Head Office of the Police and the Judicery are investigating the outback community to determine if any monies were paid to the local Police and Judicery. It seems when the local police,judicery were processing these papers,it never occured to them, anyone would see these pàpers. It is expected the Local Branch of the Police and Judicery will be disciplined.
Gary Anderson es muy confusa sobre los leyes de Perú. En comunidades pequeñas del interior se alega, el policía y Judicery se puede emplear para procesar cualesquiera papeles cualquier persona desea. La queja criminal dicha nunca era deliverd a los person`s dichos, nunca entregados a la papada, De Melt, Nunez, Rodreges. Él solamente sobre la lectura del engaño, alto lanzamiento de prensa del canto que la papada, De Melt y los otros eran enterados de esto. Grenville viajó a la comunidad del interior y pidió una copia de la queja criminal dicha. Los signitures en los documentos fueron forjados. La oficina central lima del policía y el Judicery están investigando a comunidad del interior para determinarse si algunos dineros fueron pagados al policía y al Judicery locales. Se parece cuando el policía local, judicery procesaba estos papeles, él nunca ocurrió a ellos, cualquier persona vería estos pàpers. Se espera que el rama local del policía y Judicery sean disciplinados.
Posted by Milagros Monjaraz @ 2007-10-22 18:16
