Court orders renew of Montagne d’Or concessions

Located in French Guiana, the open pit gold mining project hosts Proven Mineral Reserves of 8.25 Mt at 1.99 g/t (530,000 oz) and Probable Mineral Reserves of 45.87 Mt at 1.50 g/t (2.2 Moz).

The Montagne d’Or joint-venture (owned 44.99% by Orea and 55.01% by Nord Gold SE) submitted renewal applications for a 25-year period for two core mining concessions in December 2016. In the absence of a decision from the Minister of Economy the JV filed proceedings in February and March 2019 in the Administrative Court of Cayenne in French Guiana to invalidate any implicit refusal.

The Court ordered the state to extend the mining concessions and to set the duration of the extensions within a period of six months from the notification of the court judgment. The Minister of Economy will have two months to appeal the decision.

“The Court also noted the completeness of the applications and the JV’s financial and technical capabilities to develop the project. Now that the mine redesign is essentially complete, culminating in years of outstanding work by the JV to make this project technically and environmentally exemplary, we now see a clear path for the development of one of the best grade open pit gold deposits in the Guiana Shield,” Orea CEO Rock Lefrancois said in a media statement.

According to the company, the current schedule is to finalize the environmental and mining authorization applications in the first quarter of 2021.

Midday Thursday, Orea’s stock was up 35% on the TSE. The company has a C$37 million market capitalization.