FrançaisPeople’s Democratic Republic of Algeria
Ministry of Energy and Mining
National Agency of Mining Patrimony
Communiqués
The “Agence national du partrimoine minier” sets the record straight on the Sahara resources case
March 1, 2006
The Agence National du Patrimoine Minier (ANPM – the government agency responsible for granting mining licences in Algeria), an official body of the Algerian State, does not intend to enter into a debate on the application of the mining law and its regulatory texts whose interpretation suffers no ambiguity. However the recent, unfounded statements (06/02/2006) of Mr Harmen Keyser Vice President of Sahara Resources and Chairman of Landmark Mineral Inc. call us and force us to set the record straight and establish the truth of the matter.
Before answering this man’s allegations, we feel it appropriate to establish a chronology of the facts, to make available to the public and companies which must be correctly informed the evaluation elements of this truth.
Mr Harmen Kerser contacted the Agence National du Patrimoine Minier (ANMP) for the fist time in the month of December 2004 to enquire about the content of the mining law, the related regulations and possibilities of partnership and of obtaining mining concessions for the company Radius Gold whose financial reports and experience he presented to us. Made confident by the documents presented and in view of Radius Gold’s references, the ANPM agreed to grant prospecting permits on already prospected and/or explored zones which can only be assigned through awarding a public contract to the lowest bidder.
Prospecting permit applications, 4 dated 25/04/2005 and 2 dated 10/09/2005, were then submitted in the name of Sahara Resources, a company acting on behalf of Radius Gold, founded and 100% owned by the latter.
After examining and accepting the applications, the Agence Nationale du Patrimoine Minier, granted Sahara Resources four prospecting mining concessions dated 02/05/2005 and two prospecting mining concessions dated 15/10/2005.
Since this date and up to the receipt, on 31/12/2005, of a copy of the agreement signed between the Comena (?) (Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique – the Atomic Energy Commission) and Landmark (?) related to the six prospecting permits which were granted to Sahara Resources, no relevant information or official correspondence relating to a potential transfer agreement nor any other transfer request from Sahara Resources was received by the ANPM.
In his press release of 21/12/2005, Mr Harmen Keyser announced the “strategic alliance” between Comena and Landmark, declaring on behalf of this company’s board, without any ambiguity (last paragraph of the press release), that Landmark owned a 70% interest on Timagaouine and an 80% interest on Asseo.
Of the two previous press releases, in the 21/02/2005 release the same author announced very clearly the acquisition and not the intention to purchase, by Landmark Minerals from Sahara resources of shares on the four mining concessions related to Timagouine (press release of 02/09/2005) and on the two mining concessions in Asseo (press release of 14/10/2005, i.e. 1 day before the date they were obtained); he never made any mention in these two releases of any application and/or of waiting for a potential and prior agreement of the Agence National du Patrimoine Minier on this transfer, only the agreement of TSX Venture Exchange had been made in recognition (see, respectively, the first paragraph of the 1st press release and 2nd paragraph of the second press release).
The author of the press release was therefore either ignorant of the mining law and of its regulatory texts (!), thought he was able to make the transfer without referring the matter to ANPM, or intentionally, for speculative reasons, used ambiguous terms such as exploration and concessions and avoided mentioning this prior agreement which he had in no way obtained. The latter hypothesis seems to be confirmed by the two Landmark Mineral Inc. press releases dated 12/10/2005 and 07/11/2005.
The Agence Nationale du Patrimoine Minier, as of the announcement made by Landmark Minerals on 21 December 2005 of its transaction with the Comena, in total disrespect of the mining law, after a meeting of its board of directors, and in application of the texts in force, decided, on 28/12/2005, to announce the withdrawal of the prospecting permits granted to Sahara Resources, after confirming that said company had neither taken over nor executed the works stipulated in the brief but had authorised another company, "Landmark", to claim a utopian transfer of mining concessions, information without grounds, which enabled it to lead to a so-called “strategic alliance” with an official Algerian organisation.
In terms of transferring mining concessions from one company to another, the new Algerian mining law and the related regulations are clear: All transfers may be made ONLY after the prior agreement of the ANPM (article 75 of the law). Depending on the type of mining concession to be transferred and the information and references on the beneficiary party of the transfer, the Agency may accept or refuse the transfer, but it is obvious that it shall not accept any fait accompli.
The information from Mr Harmen Keyser, related to any agreement, whether written or verbal, given by the Agence Nationale du Patrimoine Minier (ANPM) on the possibilities of this transfer, is pure allegation, devoid of any grounds.
The copies of the letters of intent were sent to the ANPM on 03/01/2006, i.e. a few days after its announcement of the decision to withdraw the exploration licences.
In the press release dated 6 February 2006, the Chairman of Landmark declared that his company would have invested an approximate amount of CAD 250,000. This non credible statement only commits its author, as it is very difficult to accept that a company which had no mining concession, or any certainty of obtaining the guarantee from the ANPM for the transfer, had accepted to spend such a large amount of money.
Sahara Resources, the sole legal representative of the Mining Agency indeed paid about USD 1,200 to obtain the prospecting permits, representing the amount of the administration fees required by the mining law, i.e. USD 200 per permit, to which it is possible to add a few costs incurred by travelling and trips to Algeria of its Vice President. Of course, we do not know the actual amount of the other expenses laid out by this company, but we are certain that they are derisory in view of the works carried out which are mentioned in their report dated 01/12/2005, sent to the ANPM on 03/01/2005 along with the letter of intent.
Algeria has reformed its legislation and its mining regulations and put in place an appropriate organisation, to open up the mining sector to private investors, which are treated with discrimination and in total fairness. The Agence National du Patrimoine Minier, an independent administrative authority responsible for ensuring the application of said legislation, was created to help them and to facilitate the putting in place of their investment; to these true investors it says: “be our guests”, as it is also responsible for removing and barring the route to speculators, with the full force granted to it by the mining legislation.
The chairman of the board
A. BENYOUB