Companhia
Mineira de Naburi (“CMdN”)
Appeal of UK
Court judgment
Pathfinder
Minerals announcement of 27 March 2013 re Appeal by CMdN of UK Court judgment
The owners
of CMdN, General Veloso and Diogo Cavaco note the announcement by Pathfinder
Minerals dated 27 March 2013 regarding CMdN’s appeal against the UK court
judgment obtained by Pathfinder Minerals.
As with
previous announcements by Pathfinder Minerals this announcement is more
interesting for what it does not say and is confusing for investors.
In fact, in
response to CMdN’s appeal, Pathfinder Minerals applied to the UK High Court
demanding that General Veloso and Diogo Cavaco:
1. provide over £1m of security
for costs; and
2. drop their legal proceedings
in Mozambique
if they wished
to proceed with their appeal. This is a
clear attempt to stifle the appeal and deny them justice.
The judge stated
that the demand for over £1m of costs was grossly excessive and he was not
prepared to make it a condition of the appeal that General Veloso and Diogo
Cavaco withdraw their Mozambique legal proceedings. General Veloso and Diogo Cavaco continue to
pursue vigorously the Mozambique legal proceedings.
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Note to Editors:
In the UK judgement obtained by Pathfinder Minerals in October
2012, the judge correctly found that the Share Option Agreement entered into by
Pathfinder Minerals and CMdN was indeed an option agreement, under which the
option could only be exercised upon payment of the agreed purchase price of
$9.9m, which has not been paid. Accordingly,
property in the CMdN shares has not passed to Pathfinder Minerals’ subsidiary,
IM Minerals Limited.
To this day, the promoters of Pathfinder Minerals, Nick Trew,
Gordon Dickie, John McKeon and Tim Baldwin have only ever paid $100,000 in
respect of the Option Agreement entered into in good faith by General Veloso
and Diogo Cavaco in 2005.
The
owners of CMdN, General Veloso and Diogo Cavaco, remain highly confident that while
it is likely to take several years for this case to be finally resolved, they
will be successful in defending their rights of ownership of CMdN under
Mozambique law.
