Oremex Provides Additional Information Regarding Status of Tejamen Silver Property
Vancouver, Canada (ots/PRNewswire)
Oremex Resources Inc. (TSX-V:
ORM) (the "Company") is providing additional details pursuant to the
Company's February 26, 2007 news release, which reported on the
status of the Company's surface access rights to the Tejamen Silver
Property ("Tejamen").Under Mexican mining law, ownership of mining concessions confers certain rights with respect to minerals. With completion of the final payment to the underlying owner of the mineral concessions, the Company now owns a 100 percent interest in the mineral concessions, with no ongoing obligations or residual royalties payable to, or net profit interests retained by, the former owners.
Ownership of mining concessions does not confer surface access rights, so that mineral concession holders must either negotiate access arrangements with the owners of the surface rights, or undertake a federal legal process for expropriation or temporary occupation.
The governing Ejido of the village and surrounding lands owns the surface rights on the Company's mineral concession. For the past three years, the Company has been granted the right to surface access by the Ejido in order to conduct exploration on its mineral concessions. In its activities, the Company has employed local labour to assist with its exploration work and has made numerous contributions to community access and infrastructure programs.
Despite apparently successful negotiations with legal representatives of the Ejido leading up to the formal Ejido meeting, the Company was unsuccessful in securing a renegotiated agreement for surface access at Tejamen from the Ejido by a narrow margin of votes of those present at the meeting. The proposed agreement covered an expanded scope of activities that included mining as well as exploration over an extended term.
Mining law in Mexico defines the exploration, exploitation and processing of minerals as a public benefit which confers preferential status over any other use of the land. In addition, Agrarian law, under which Ejidos are governed, provides for expropriation of Ejido and community lands for the exploitation of minerals. In the absence of agreements with local surface rights holders, many of the owners of Mexico's operating mines today have sought and secured access to surface rights through this legal process.
While the Company is continuing discussions with the Ejido in order to reach a mutually beneficial agreement, the Company has initiated proceedings to gain surface access under applicable federal laws. Based on the experiences of other companies operating in Mexico, this is a common strategy. While it will cause some short-term delays, the Company does not anticipate that it will hinder long-term development of Tejamen.
The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy and accuracy of this release.
Forward-Looking Statements: The above contains forward-looking statements that are subject to a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in our forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause such differences include: changes in world commodity markets, equity markets, costs and supply of materials relevant to the mining industry, change in government and changes to regulations affecting the mining industry. Forward-looking statements in this release include statements regarding future exploration programs, operation plans, geological interpretations, mineral tenure issues and mineral recovery processes. Although we believe the expectations reflected in our forward-looking statements are reasonable, results may vary, and we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements.
Contact:
For further information: Linda Thorstad, M.Sc., P.Geo., Chief
Executive Officer, T: +1-604-683-5651, E: linda.thorstad@oremex.com