MONTREAL, QUEBEC, Nov 12 (MARKET WIRE) --
In a press conference held in Mexico City on November 10th, Mauricio
Limon, Undersecretary for Environmental Protection at the Mexican
ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT), declared
that the ministry would enforce a recent superior court ruling and
withdraw New Gold's (TSX: NGD) environmental impact permit between now
and Friday, November 13th. The company, he declared, would at that point
have to cease operations at its Cerro de San Pedro project. The
Undersecretary's statements were reported in the November 11th edition of
La Jornada, one of Mexico's leading national newspapers.(1)
On September 24th, the Federal Fiscal and Administrative Justice Tribunal
of Mexico ruled that the SEMARNAT must retire the permit granted to the
company back in April 2006. The tribunal gave the ministry until the 13th
of November to apply this ruling.
In response, a bi-national declaration was signed this week by Canadian
Parliamentarians and members of the Mexican congress urging the relevant
Mexican authorities to enforce the tribunal's decision. It was signed by
Gilles Duceppe, Pierre Paquette, Francine Lalonde and Johanne Deschamps
for the Bloc Quebecois; Jack Layton, Peter Julian and Paul Dewar for the
New Democratic Party; Elizabeth May for the Green Party; Alejandro
Encinas Rodriguez for the seventy members of the Partido de la Revolucion
Democratica; and Pedro Vasquez Gonzalez for the thirteen members of the
Partido del Trabajo.
The declaration notes the severe and in many cases irremediable damages
that New Gold's project has wrought to the valley of San Luis Potosi -
inhabited by approximately 1.3 million people - since it began operations
in 2006. It supports the ruling of the Mexican tribunals in putting an
end to this project, calls upon the relevant Mexican authorities to
enforce this ruling and demands that New Gold-Minera San Xavier respect
the laws of Mexico.
(1)http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2009/11/11/index.php?section=sociedad&article=
040n1soc
Contacts:
David Schecter
514-209-2666
cerrodesanpedro@gmail.com
(English)
Lazar Konforti
514-827-7486
cerrodesanpedro@gmail.com
(Francais)
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