Upper Court of Andalucia Rules IN Favor of Emerita’S Appeal of the Paymogo Public Tender
65 Queen Street West, Suite 800, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5H 2M5
UPPER COURT OF ANDALUCIA RULES IN FAVOR OF EMERITA’S APPEAL OF THE PAYMOGO
PUBLIC TENDER
Toronto, Ontario, September 28, 201 7 – Emerita Resources Corp. (the “Company” or
“Emerita”) (TSX-V: EMO) announces that the Upper Court of Andalucia (TSJA – Tribunal
Superior de la Junta de Andalucia) (the “Court”) has ruled in favour of Emerita’s appeal relating
to the awarding of the Paymogo zinc project (see Figure 1 below) (the “Project”). The Court
has declared the resolution of April 2014, awarding the Paymogo tender (the “Tender”) to
Minera Aguas Teñidas SA (“Matsa”) invalid and has ordered that the qualifying bids pursuant
to the Tender tender be reassessed.
When the Project was initially awarded in 2014, Emerita filed an appeal based on its belief that
the Tender process contained a number of procedural errors and had not been conducted
impartially.
Emerita’s main arguments for its appeal included:
The panel awarded point s to Matsa for criteria that had not been included in the
original Tender.
Matsa previously held the exploration permits relating to the Project for five years.
After this period , the Junta of Andalucia terminated the permits because Matsa had
not complet ed required exploratory work on the Project and initiated the Tender
process. Emerita identified legal precedents which indicated that a company that had
not fulfilled its legal obligations relating to a property could not participate in a future
tender for the same property.
Matsa’s bid had technical errors which under applicable law should have been
sufficient to invalidate its bid.
The Court found that certain of the criteria used by the panel to evaluate the offers were
considered arbitrarily without being made known to all of the participants in the Tender , and
therefore the principles of equality, objectivity and transparency were violated. According to
the Court: “The panel has made an arbitrary assessment of the bids favoring one bidder to the
detriment of the others."
As a result, the Court has ruled in favor of Emerita’s appeal and rescinded the awarding of the
Project. The C ourt has directed the panel to reassess the bids but to exclude the criteria that
did not form part of the initial publicly disclosed tender criteria . This resolution comes from
the upper court of Andalucia, and therefore the avenues for further appeal are limited.
Implications - Management’s Opinion
Public tenders for mineral properties in Spain are scored by a panel and awarded to the
company that achieves the highest number of points based on the criteria laid out in the public
tender documentation. When the Tender for the Project is re-assessed, if the panel eliminates
the illegal criteria, and leaves the legal criteria as originally scored, the Company believes that
Matsa will lose 14.24 points. As such, the Company expects that the final score will be Matsa
29.14 points and Emerita 34.16 points and that in this case Emerita should be awarded the
tender.
65 Queen Street West, Suite 800, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5H 2M5
Emerita does not know what the timing will be for the panel to reconvene or how they will
approach the reassessment. Emerita’s Spanish legal counsel advises that if there is no action
by the pa nel within 30 days it has the right to petition the court to seek action on the
resolution. Emerita will provide an update in due course with respect to new developments.
About the Project
The Project is located in southwestern Spain close to the borde r with Portugal. Geologically
the Project is underlain by rocks of the Iberian Pyrite Belt which is a prolific volcanogenic
massive sulphide terrane with numerous current and past producers of base metals sulphides.
The Project hosts two deposits, called La Infanta and Romanera. Both deposits remain open at
depth. La Infanta has some very high grade intercepts and is only drilled to approximately 100
meters depth. See Table 1 below for a list of drill intercepts.
DDH # DEPTH FROM (M) DEPTH TO (M) INTERCEPT (M) Cu% Pb% Zn% Ag g/t
A12 78.0 84.1 6.14 4.00 11.18 17.71 115.00
A14 21.5 25.2 3.78 0.73 2.00 3.93 30.00
A16 98.5 101.5 2.96 0.41 4.72 11.97 12.00
A19 88.2 91.3 3.06 1.37 7.42 14.47 133.00
A21 33.6 35.6 1.97 1.44 6.30 12.54 159.00
A22 105.9 109.1 3.20 3.60 12.50 24.03 149.00
A23 36.4 41.4 5.05 0.52 8.67 16.60 -
A23 26.9 33.9 6.95 0.28 2.48 5.20 -
A25 70.3 74.0 3.75 2.74 7.92 16.74 157.00
A27 27.8 31.4 3.67 1.16 3.07 8.30 106.00
A3 47.6 50.8 3.15 3.05 11.40 20.42 292.00
A3 57.6 64.3 6.71 1.73 7.20 11.70 110.00
A31 81.2 86.5 5.30 3.96 12.24 24.50 280.00
A32 72.4 76.0 3.63 3.81 18.13 31.20 214.00
A33 76.3 79.8 3.46 1.39 5.30 10.60 179.00
A39 35.0 40.6 5.63 1.31 5.87 11.97 181.00
A4 80.2 83.6 3.39 2.72 8.42 16.15 260.00
A5 50.9 53.0 2.13 1.90 8.91 12.97 158.00
Table 1: La Infanta Diamond Drill Intercepts 2 meters or greater.
65 Queen Street West, Suite 800, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5H 2M5
Romanera is a larger sulphide deposit which is located approximately seven km to the west of
La Infanta. Riotinto Minera SA controlled the Project from 1990 – 1995 and reported the
following historical resources (see Table 2).
Table 2: Romanera Historical Resources as calculated by Riotinto Minera SA.
A qualified person, as defined in NI 43-101, has not done sufficient work on behalf of Emerita
to classify the historical estimate as a current mineral resource and Emerita is not treating
the historical estimate as a current mineral resource or mineral reserve. The historical
estimate does not use categories that conform to current CIM Definition Standards on
Mineral Resources and Reserves as outlined in NI 43-101. The mineral resource estimate is a
historical estimate and should not be relied upon. Should Emerita be successful in acquiring
the Project it expects to engage an independent technical consultant to complete a NI 43 -
101 technical report on the Project.
Figure 1: Project Location Map
Management Commentary:
David Gower, Chairman of Emerita, commented: “Emerita is encouraged by the ruling of the
Court with respect to the awarding of the Paymogo public tender. It is a strong endorsement
for the region as a place to conduct business to see that the rule of law is transparently and
fairly administered. Emerita has an exceptional technical team in Spain and a great depth of
experience in delineating and developing these types of zinc deposits and is ready to advance
the Project quickly should it be awarded the tender.”
Company Tonnage (Mt) ore type Cu % Pb% Zn% S% Ag (gpt) Au (gpt)
Riotinto Minera 34 total 0.42 1.10 2.30 _ 44.00 0.80
including 11.21 polymetallic 0.40 2.47 5.50 _ 64.00 1.00
65 Queen Street West, Suite 800, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5H 2M5
Joaquin Merino, President a nd CEO of Emerita, commented: “The Paymogo zinc project is an
exceptional opportunity for Emerita given the successful drilling to date by the previous
operators. Emerita also continues to be fully committed to acquiring the Aznalcollar project in
Spain following the recent court ruling in the Company’s favour . Following the completion of
the ongoing acquisition of the Salobro project in Brazil, and if the Company is successful in
acquiring the Aznalcollar project , Emerita will have a very strong zinc project portfolio going
forward.”
Qualified Person
Joaquin Merino , P.Geo, President and CEO of the Company, is a “qualified person ” as such
term is defined in NI 43 -101 and has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical
information included in this press release.
About Emerita Resources Corp.
Emerita is a natural resource company engaged in the acquisition, exploration and
development of mineral properties i n Europe and South America , with a primary focus on
exploring in Spain and Brazil. The Company’s corporate office and technical team are based in
Sevilla, Spain with an administrative office in Toronto, Canada.
For further information, contact:
Joaquin Merino
+34 (628) 1754 66 (Spain)
Helia Bento
+1 416 309 4293 (Toronto)
65 Queen Street West, Suite 800, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5H 2M5
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Information
This press release contains “forward -looking information” within the meaning of applicable
Canadian securities legislation. Forward -looking information includes, without limitation,
statements regarding the Project, the tender process, the mineral resources at the Project, the
potential of the Project , the Company’s ability to obtain the rights to the Project and the
Company’s future plans. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of
forward-looking terminology such as “plans”, “expects” or “does not expect”, “is expected”,
“budget”, “scheduled”, “estimates”, “forecasts”, “intends”, “anticipates” or “does not
anticipate”, or “believes”, or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions,
events or results “may” , “could”, “would”, “might” or “will be taken”, “occur” or “be
achieved”. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties
and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or
achievements of Emerita, as the case may be, to be materially different from those expressed
or implied by such forward -looking information, including but not limited to: general business,
economic, competitive, geopolitical and social uncertainties; the actual results of current
exploration activities; risks associated with operation in foreign jurisdictions; ability to
successfully integrate purchased properties or mining rights awarded; foreign operations risks;
and other risks inherent in the mining industry. Althoug h Emerita has attempted to identify
important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in
forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as
anticipated, estimated or intended. T here can be no assurance that such information will
prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those
anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on
forward-looking informa tion. Emerita does not undertake to update any forward -looking
information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.
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