Grenville's Gill says conflict about "personalities"
2008-03-10 15:56 ET - Street Wire
Also Street Wire (C-HRR) High Ridge Resources Inc
by Stockwatch Business Reporter
Grenville Gold Corp.'s chief executive officer Paul Gill says his company's dispute with High Ridge Resources Inc., which led Grenville to file a lawsuit against High Ridge on March 4, is about "personalities and not really good business."
The lawsuit alleges that High Ridge claimed to own the Bella Rubia concession, one of Grenville's properties in the San Mateo area of Peru. The San Mateo area is a hot district that is home to some of Peru's more-productive former silver mines. The lawsuit says High Ridge's claim is an attempt to destroy Grenville's chance of negotiating a processing agreement with refiner Glencore International AG.
Mr. Gill says High Ridge tried to acquire the claims in June, 2007, but it never completed the deal or paid for the claims. A month later, Mr. Gill's company bought the same claims, also from the Bella Rubia group, a former mine manager in the area run by Ruben Benitez.
Gary Anderson, High Ridge's chief executive officer, says in an e-mail that its June acquisition is good.
According to Grenville's Mr. Gill, High Ridge's earlier disputed purchase of the property caused headaches for Grenville, because High Ridge set up what he calls a blocking arrangement at SUNARP, the Peruvian land registry. He said High Ridge never proved ownership of the claims, so High Ridge could not register them, but the arrangement prevented anyone else from registering them until January, when the blocking arrangement expired.
"I think that it was done just to prevent us from progressing the company, which is ridiculous," Mr. Gill says. "If we progressed this company, it would benefit everyone in the area.";
In response, Mr. Anderson says the question of who owns the property is still working its way through the Peruvian legal system. He adds that Mr. Gill's suggestion that High Ridge made its deal to prevent Grenville from working with Glencore is false and defamatory.
This is not the first time High Ridge Resources and Grenville Gold have clashed. In October, High Ridge stirred the pot by putting out a press release complaining about a gate on a public road leading through the San Mateo area that it said Grenville erected in June.
The biggest issue was that High Ridge said criminal proceedings had commenced against Mr. Gill and Leonard DeMelt, Grenville's chairman, for blocking a public road.
In a press release of its own, Grenville reacted by accusing High Ridge of defamation. It said the road was a private one that it had bought in July. (Although July was the same month Grenville bought the disputed Bella Rubia concessions, the deals were not the same.) Grenville owned the road and it would decide who could drive on it.
Mr. Gill says the Bella Rubia dispute is separate. The road issue "went pretty much nowhere." It turned out that there were two gates and everyone can now drive to their respective properties on their respective roads. "I think some mistakes had been made by the other side in regards to who controlled what.";
Mr. Anderson agrees that his company has access to its concessions, though he adds, "The dispute is ongoing within the Peruvian legal system."
The personalities driving the dispute are Mr. DeMelt and Mr. Anderson, Mr. Gill says. "I don't have any problems saying that. People have to understand where the conflict is here.";
Not so, says Mr. Anderson.
