24 October 2013
Companhia
Mineira de Naburi (“CMdN”)
Announcement
by Pathfinder Minerals plc re Mozambique Court Order
The owners of CMdN, General
Veloso and Diogo Cavaco, note the recent announcement by Pathfinder Minerals
plc (“Pathfinder Minerals”) regarding the Interdict obtained by CMdN preventing
IM Minerals from taking action in the English courts until the case is heard in
Mozambique.
These announcements by
Pathfinder Minerals are becoming increasingly desperate as
half-truths are
layered onto half-truths by the Directors of Pathfinder Minerals on what is meant
to be the Regulatory News Service of a publicly-listed company.
The Mozambique Court Order
that Pathfinder Minerals has obtained is in clear breach of the judicial
procedures of the Courts of Mozambique. In particular, the judge who signed
this Order no longer has any authority to make this judgement following the
appeal of her earlier judgement and the reinstatement of the Owners Interdict with
suspensive effect. The decision is void
and illegal and the Owners expect this Order to be revoked in due course once
their objection to the Order has been heard.
The announcement by
Pathfinder Minerals is factually inaccurate in that the Owners did file their
main action within the prescribed time period and that main action remains
before the Court in Mozambique.
The Owners and their lawyers are taking steps to understand how Pathfinder Minerals and their lawyers, Couta Graca & Associados, managed to circumvent the due process of Mozambique law.
The Owners and their lawyers are taking steps to understand how Pathfinder Minerals and their lawyers, Couta Graca & Associados, managed to circumvent the due process of Mozambique law.
************************
Notes for Editors:
In the High Court judgement
obtained by Pathfinder Minerals in October 2012, the judge correctly found that
the Share Option Agreement by which Pathfinder Minerals claimed to own shares
of CMdN was indeed an option agreement, under which the option could only be
exercised upon payment of the purchase price of $9.9m, which has not been paid.
Accordingly, under Mozambique law ownership of CMdN shares never passed to Pathfinder
Minerals.
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 2006.
