Companhia Mineira de Naburi (“CMdN”)
The
Directors of CMdN note the recent announcements by Pathfinder Minerals
regarding its legal action in respect of the shares of CMdN it claims to own.
Following
the decision of the Judicial Court of Maputo city (the “Court”) to suspend the
previous Interdict obtained by CMdN, which prevented Pathfinder Minerals
continuing proceedings in the UK court until a judgement had been made by the
court in Mozambique, the Directors of CMdN filed an appeal on 29 November 2012 to
suspend such decision.
This appeal
has been brought by CMdN on the grounds, inter alia, that the new judgement
obtained by Pathfinder Minerals:
i)
completely ignores the first decision issued by the Court and fails to address
the findings of the previous judgement;
ii) ignores
the invalidity of clauses of the contracts by which Pathfinder Minerals claims
to own the shares of CMdN that were previously analyzed by the Court;
iii)
ignores the legal opinion of the most eminent Professor of Portuguese Civil and
Commercial Law, Professor António Menezes Cordeiro, provided to the Court
by CMdN; and
iv) fails
to address key facts previously presented to the Court by General Jacinto
Soares Veloso and Diogo Cavaco.
It is also
extremely surprising that this judgement was known to third parties, the
newspapers in Mozambique and IM Minerals long before General Veloso and Diogo
Cavaco were informed of the decision. Given the pressure that Pathfinder
Minerals says it is exerting through political and diplomatic channels, General
Veloso and Diogo Cavaco have informed the Competent Authorities in Mozambique responsible
for fighting Corruption and Trafficking in Influences, about the announcements
made by Pathfinder Minerals, and the court decision it has received, in order
to verify this situation.
Conclusion
As the
English court has confirmed, Pathfinder Minerals has never paid for any shares
of CMdN. Neither has it met any of its contractual obligations under Mozambique
law by which it agreed to pay for shares of CMdN. The owners of CMdN will
continue to defend vigorously their legitimate rights of ownership of CMdN.
Maputo,
Mozambique – 4 December 2012
