PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Gold miner OceanaGold Corporation will face the Court of Appeals, in Manila, on September 18 for a hearing on a preliminary injunction as part of the company’s appeal against the Nueva Vizcaya Provincial Court ruling denying the miner’s request to end a restraint of operations at the Didipio mine.
Since the start of July this year, local government units from the Province of Nueva Vizcaya have impeded access to and from the Didipio mine site, in response to a directive from the Governor to ‘restrain any operations’ by OceanaGold.
The ASX- and TSX-listed gold miner filed for an injunction to ensure that the operations at Didipio could continue, but the request was denied in late July.
OceanaGold has maintained that the regulatory authority over the Didipio operation rested with the national government, while the local government was not authorized to restrain any aspect of the gold mine.
In the meantime, the miner is also working with the government to finalise the renewal of the financial and technical assistance agreement, and was remaining open to working with the provincial government.
The Didipio processing plant is currently undergoing scheduled maintenance and is expected to resume operations on September 24, at which point OceanaGold will make a decision with respect to the ongoing oeprations at the processing plant.