Bidding for North Davao Mining Corporation may have to wait until questions on the legality of its mining claims in Compostela Valley and their overlap with those of Apex Mining Corporation are first settled.
Canada’s Crew Group, which had just bought Apex, said in a statement that the case, while pending with the Mines and Geo-sciences Bureau’s regional arbitration panel since 1998, has not yet even gone into the merits and would definitely take years to resolve.
Every ruling by the panel can be appealed by to the Mines Adjudication Board, then to the Court of Appeals, and eventually to the Supreme Court.
This was what happened to an interlocutory order issued by the panel in 2000 which was finally settled by the Supreme Court only early this year. This order simply defined areas where there was no conflict between the claims of Apex and NDMC.
But where there is conflict, the case becomes a complicated legal mess with a lot of details to be presented going all the way back to the mid-60s through the martial law years when NDMC was still controlled by the Elizaldes. Apex is alleging that NDMC’s mining claims are illegal and therefore null and void from the beginning.
"It is unfortunate that these legal questions stand in the way of the bidding for NDMC. Apex would like to see the case resolved soonest but will definitely exert its utmost to protect its interest," the statement added.
The company has just been bought by Crew Gold Corporation of Canada and its local affiliate, Mapula Creek Gold Corporation. Crew Gold is in the process of expanding its presence internationally. The turnover of Apex to Crew is currently going on. Crew’s new management team is now gearing up for fullscale operations by next year.
Only last month, Crew Gold offered to buy Guinor Gold Corporation for US$328 million all in cash. Guinor operates a West African gold project in Guinea that is expected to produce around 300,000 ounces of gold a year.
