Canadian exploration company Shoreham Resources Ltd has received Canadian Stock Exchange approval for a deal for Guyana’s Sardine Hill with the local company Mariwa Mining.
A Newswire release today said that TSX-V provided approval of the Sardine Hill Property Option Agreement (the “Option Agreement”) between the “Company and Mariwa Mining Company Inc. (“Mariwa”) and its principals (the “Principals”), originally announced in the Company’s news releases dated December 30, 2009 and April 6, 2010. Pursuant to the Option Agreement, Shoreham has been granted an option (the “Option”) to acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of Mariwa, which holds a 100% interest in the 10,427 acre Sardine Hill – Mariwa Prospecting License area in Guyana (the “Property”).”
Mariwa’s principals are Presidential advisor Odinga Lumumba and Grantley Walrond.
Under the Option Agreement, the Company has the right to exercise the Option by paying to the principals of Mariwa, an aggregate of US$1,000,000 and by issuing 1,500,000 common shares of the Company over five years. The released added that the “Company is required to complete an initial exploration program of US$700,000 on the Property in compliance with the Guyanese Geology and Mines Commission requirements for the license. The company has completed programs of line cutting and is contracting geophysical and drilling program as part of the orderly development of the property, The Company has also agreed to grant to the Principals a 3% net smelter returns royalty (the “NSR Royalty”) on the Property, with buy-down provisions which allow the Company to purchase the entire NSR Royalty.”
Shoreham, according to the release, has also agreed to pay a finder’s fee to an arm’s length third party whose role was instrumental to this transaction. Shoreham will issue an aggregate of 60,000 common shares of the Company and make cash payments in the aggregate amount of US$50,000 to the person over a period of five years corresponding with the terms of the Option Agreement.
Sources within the mining industry here told Stabroek News earlier this year that the Sardine Hill property had been a controversial issue ever since its previous owner, Roraima Investments, a local company headed by Walrond acquired ownership of it in the early 1990s. Roraima Investments lost ownership of the property and it was subsequently reclaimed by the GGMC owing to the non-payment of rentals, which amounted to some $25 million a source related.
According to a source, in 2007, Afro Alphonso and Chunilall Babulall of the C&BR mining company based in Bartica, paid a sum of $80 million to the GGMC for the property but the execution of the sale was halted after Roraima Investments secured an injunction from the courts restraining the mines commission from continuing with the sale. Alfonso and Babulall subsequently discontinued the arrangement and reclaimed the sum paid on the property from the GGMC, and after a year, were paid the sum in full.
Lumumba, of McNeal Enterprises, the initial owner of the property, and Walrond petitioned President Bharrat Jagdeo thereafter and a decision was subsequently handed down in which, Mariwa, a newly formed company headed by Lumumba and Walrond, was granted ownership of the property. The President later defended the deal at a press conference stating that petitions are “routinely” made to him and the one that led to the granting of a prospecting licence to his presidential advisor Lumumba was a “reinstatement” which benefited from the advice of Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, who holds responsibility for the mining sector.
