{"id":1122460,"date":"2019-06-21T11:38:06","date_gmt":"2019-06-21T11:38:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=994495"},"modified":"2019-06-21T11:38:06","modified_gmt":"2019-06-21T11:38:06","slug":"solgold-shares-soar-after-ecuador-court-dismisses-call-for-referendum-on-mining","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1122460","title":{"rendered":"SolGold shares soar after Ecuador court dismisses call for referendum on mining"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shares in Ecuador-focused SolGold (LON, TSX:SOLG) jumped on Friday,\u00a0after it announced that the country\u2019s Constitutional Court had rejected calls for a referendum on mining<\/a> in Imbabura, the province in which the company\u2019s flagship\u00a0Cascabel copper-gold project<\/a>\u00a0is located.<\/p>\n

The Australian miner, which holds 72 mineral concessions in Ecuador through four subsidiaries,\u00a0said the court had unanimously and \u201cdefinitively\u201d rejected the petition<\/a> on the basis of technicalities. <\/p>\n

Under Ecuadorian law, individuals can put forward petitions
\nto include questions in a future vote. They must gather signatures from 10% of
\nthe voting population in the province concerned.<\/p>\n

The court then gathers arguments from those who put forward the referendum, as well as those that opposed it. <\/p>\n

\n
\n

The country’s Constitutional Court has rejected calls for a referendum, which could have halted the miner’s flagship Cascabel copper-gold project.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

SolGold said that representatives of government bodies,
\nregional communities, pro-mining group and members of the Cascabel community
\ncame forward to demonstrate their opposition to the petition.<\/p>\n

While the court\u2019s verdict rejected the request for a
\nreferendum, it did not discuss or rule on the merits of the case. The formal resolution
\nof the court with further detail into the rejection, in fact, is yet to be
\npublished. <\/p>\n

SolGold already had the Ecuadorian government\u2019s backing. Earlier this month, energy minister, Carlos P\u00e9rez, stated that Cascabel had the potential to become the world’s largest underground silver mine<\/a>, third-largest gold and sixth-largest copper operation.<\/p>\n

\u201cSolGold is committed to building an integrated explorer,
\nappraiser and miner in the copper industry in Ecuador, and enjoys the support
\nof its major shareholders, including Newcrest and BHP,” it said. <\/p>\n

SolGold\u2019s share price had nearly halved since May, from a
\nhigh of 40.20 pence to a low of 26.1 pence earlier this week. Following the news
\nof the court\u2019s resolution, the stock climbed more than 23% in London, reaching
\n36.25 pence in early morning.<\/p>\n

It means that SolGold\u2019s shares are now back up to its
\nhistorical average for the last six months, leaving its market capitalization at
\n\u00a3528 million (about $745m).<\/p>\n

While Ecuador has gained ground as a mining investment
\ndestination in the past two years, existing and future projects risk delays and
\npotential halts due to growing local opposition to the extraction of the
\ncountry\u2019s resources, a report by Fitch Solutions Macro Research<\/a> shows.<\/p>\n

As mining projects face headwinds from rising tensions,
\ninvestors\u2019 courage will be tested, the study concluded, which could thwart
\nEcuador\u2019s plan to attract $3.7 billion in mining investments in the next two
\nyears, up from $270 million in 2018.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The country’s Constitutional Court has rejected calls for a referendum, which could have halted the miner’s flagship Cascabel and other projects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[539,369,391],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122460"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1122460"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1122659,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122460\/revisions\/1122659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1122460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1122460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1122460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}