Manhattan waits for MEM to reschedule Tambogrande meetings

Canada's Manhattan Minerals (TSX: MAN) is waiting for Peru's mines and energy ministry (MEM) to reschedule the suspended public hearings on the Tambogrande polymetallic project's environmental impact study, a company executive said Monday. The public hearings are a legal requirement for the EIS review approval process and the government needs to enforce the law to ensure they take place, Manhattan CEO Larry Glaser told BNamericas. If the government could not deal with the security issues to ensure the public hearings went ahead, Glaser said that he "suspected" Manhattan would have legal recourse to seek compensation from the government for its lost investment of some US$64mn. The three public hearings scheduled to take place on November 5-7 in Lima, regional capital Piura and Tambogrande respectively were all suspended due to threats of violence against infrastructure and people attending the proposed meetings. "There is a small group of people trying to prevent locals from even receiving information on the EIS," said Glaser, adding that he found this both "very frustrating" and "inappropriate." This group was receiving funds from a non-governmental organization (NGO), said Glaser, without providing details. The executive said Manhattan Minerals would only build the mine if the majority of Tambogrande were in favor of the project, but the EIS review process was necessary for locals to be properly informed and public opinion gauged, he said. MEM said Sunday it was evaluating the events surrounding the cancellation of the hearings. The US$405mn Tambogrande project, located on the edge of the town of the same name in northern Peru's Piura department, has provoked fierce resistance among locals who fear the mine's impact on the area's fertile San Lorenzo valley, an important producer of limes and mangos. In June 2002, a non-binding poll of residents of Tambogrande showed that over 98% of residents were opposed to the mine. Over the last year, Manhattan has focused efforts on turning opinion and recently told BNamericas that support for the mine was growing. Manhattan Minerals envisages producing 260,000oz/y gold and 3.2Moz/y silver for 3.5 years before the underlying copper-zinc deposit is developed. The project would involve the relocation of 1,800 households currently living in the south of Tambogrande, to make way for the open-pit mine. Manhattan Minerals has until May 31, 2004, extended from the original deadline a year earlier, to acquire 75% of the project under an option agreement with state-owned Centromin. The state miner would hold the remaining 25%.