MAG Silver to Challenge Illegal Eviction From Cinco de Mayo
November 20 2012 - 8:30AM
Marketwired
MAG Silver Corp. (TSX:MAG)(NYSE MKT:MVG)(NYSE Amex:MVG) ("MAG" or
the "Company") On Monday afternoon, MAG issued a press release
responding to reports from local media in Mexico that landholders
from the local community of Ejido Benito Juarez (the "Ejido") voted
during an assembly meeting on the evening of Saturday, November 17,
to expel MAG from its Cinco de Mayo property and establish a 100
year mining moratorium over the area. This press release is being
issued to provide further detail surrounding the events of November
17 and the actions being taken by MAG to protect its interests.
MAG reiterates its strong view that the November 17 assembly
meeting was illegally called and orchestrated by a small group of
radical agrarian activists, known as El Barzon, who are opposed to
mining and industrial agricultural development in the region. MAG
has been advised by several local sources that key signatures
required to properly call the meeting were fraudulent. Significant
concerns have also been expressed by local community members that
the vote taken at the meeting was fraught with irregularities,
including a significant number of votes being cast by unverified
proxies and the exclusion from the meeting of voting members of the
Ejido who are supportive of MAG's activities due to the economic
benefit they bring to the region.
MAG also notes that the Ejido assembly has no ability at law to
impose a ban on mining as mining is an activity that falls under
Federal jurisdiction. While permission of the Ejido assembly is
required to obtain surface access, MAG believes that the El Barzon
group and its supporters do not represent the will of the majority
of the 421 voting members of the Ejido or the 12,000 other citizens
in the project area. In fact, over the past two months, MAG has
been working to have a properly constituted assembly of the Ejido
called to vote on surface access permissions required for ongoing
exploration at Cinco de Mayo. The illegal meeting of November 17
appears to be an attempt by a small group of radicals to thwart a
free and open vote in a properly sanctioned assembly.
MAG is in the process of pursuing legal remedies at State and
Federal levels to have the November 17 meeting declared null and
void. MAG remains highly confident that the illegal resolutions
will not be permitted to stand. MAG will also concurrently ask
government officials to oversee a new assembly meeting of the Ejido
to ensure that the necessary procedural and governance rules are
respected and the vote is properly conducted. MAG has every reason
to believe that it has the support of a majority of the members of
the Ejido and that the requisite authorizations will be obtained in
due course at a properly constituted meeting.
As previously reported, MAG had been in the process of
negotiating ordinary course surface access permissions from various
stakeholders, including the Ejido in question, in connection with
MAG's application for the necessary "Soil Use Change Permits"
required to continue its exploration activities on the Cinco de
Mayo project. Given MAG's long-standing and productive working
relationship with these stakeholders, MAG anticipated obtaining the
requisite Ejido permission and to receive final permit approval
sometime in the first quarter of 2013. However, on October 22,
2012, a member of the Ejido group who was also a leader of El
Barzon, and his wife, were murdered while driving on the highway
outside of Ciudad Cuauhtemoc, Chihuahua. Following these murders,
vicious rumours were propagated by individuals sympathetic to El
Barzon alleging that MAG was somehow involved in this heinous act.
On October 23, 2012, MAG posted a statement strenuously denying any
such involvement. Until recently, it appeared that efforts to use
this tragic incident as a basis to interfere with MAG's activities
were losing momentum. Unfortunately, the events of November 17
appear to be a further step in a carefully orchestrated scheme to
undermine MAG's legal rights and thwart the will of the community
at large.
MAG intends to vigorously defend its rights through legal and
diplomatic channels and to take steps to ensure that the illegal
and misguided activities of a fringe group are not permitted to
interfere with the will of the larger Ejido community.
MAG is holding an investor conference call with MAG's President
and CEO, Dan MacInnis, and MAG Director, Peter Megaw, on Tuesday,
November 20, 2012 at 12:30 pm Eastern time (9:30 am Pacific time)
to address this matter. To participate, please dial BC local: (778)
371-9827; TO local: (647) 427-7450 or toll-free (888) 231-8191 and
request access to the "MAG Silver Conference Call". A replay of the
conference call will also be available by calling 416-849-0833 or
1-855-859-2056, conference ID: #73507580.
About MAG Silver Corp. (www.magsilver.com)
MAG is focused on district scale projects located within the
Mexican Silver Belt. Our mission is to become one of the premier
companies in the silver mining industry. MAG is conducting ongoing
exploration of its portfolio of 100% owned properties in Mexico
including a silver, lead and zinc discovery and a moly-gold
discovery at its 100% owned Cinco de Mayo property in Chihuahua
State. MAG and Fresnillo plc are also jointly developing the
Valdecanas Vein and delineating the Desprendido and Juanicipio vein
discoveries on the Juanicipio Joint Venture in Zacatecas State. MAG
is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Its common shares
trade on the TSX under the symbol MAG and on the NYSE MKT under the
symbol MVG.
On behalf of the Board of MAG SILVER CORP.
Dan MacInnis, CEO & Director
This release includes certain statements that may be deemed to
be "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the US
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements in
this release, other than statements of historical facts are forward
looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often, but not
always, identified by the use of words such as "seek",
"anticipate", "plan", "continue", "estimate", "expect", "may",
"will", "project", "predict", "potential", "targeting", "intend",
"could", "might", "should", "believe" and similar expressions.
These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and
other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ
materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking
statements. Although MAG believes the expectations expressed in
such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable
assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future
performance and actual results or developments may differ
materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors
that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in
forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, changes
in commodities prices, changes in mineral production performance,
exploitation and exploration successes, continued availability of
capital and financing, and general economic, market or business
conditions, political risk, currency risk and capital cost
inflation. In addition, forward-looking statements are subject to
various risks, including that data is incomplete and considerable
additional work will be required to complete further evaluation,
including but not limited to drilling, engineering and
socio-economic studies and investment. The reader is referred to
the Company's filings with the SEC and Canadian securities
regulators for disclosure regarding these and other risk factors.
There is no certainty that any forward looking statement will come
to pass and investors should not place undue reliance upon
forward-looking statements.
Please Note: Investors are urged to consider closely the
disclosures in MAG's annual and quarterly reports and other public
filings, accessible through the Internet at www.sedar.com and
www.sec.gov.
Neither the Toronto Stock Exchange nor the NYSE MKT has reviewed
or accepted responsibility for the accuracy or adequacy of this
news release, which has been prepared by management.
Contacts: MAG Silver Corp. Gordon Neal VP Corp. Development
(604) 630-1399 or Toll Free: (866) 630-1399 (604) 681-0894
(FAX)info@magsilver.com www.magsilver.com
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