The Constitutional Court of Ecuador has reaffirmed the revocation of the environmental permit for TSX-V-listed Cornerstone Capital Resources’ Rio Magdalena project.
The court is upholding a lower court ruling that invalidated the environmental registration granted by the country’s Ministry of Environment to Ecuador’s State-owned mining company Enami.
The permit related to an initial exploration phase in the Los Cedros protected forest at the Rio Magdalena project, which forms three of the nine concessions within the strategic exploration alliance between Cornerstone Ecuador and Enami.
Work at the project has been suspended since March 2021, pending a decision by the Constitutional Court of Ecuador, following a challenge filed by Enami to a lower court decision.
Enami argued that the lower court erred by seeking to impose a requirement for prior environmental consultation, when the regulator, the Ministry, does not require a public consultation process so early in the exploration phase.
Cornerstone is now consulting with legal counsel to determine what rights and remedies it may have.