Guyana government calls out US mining company
Guyana government accuses US mining company of lying about a new Guyana operation.
GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Thursday January 12, 2012 – Contrary to information circulated last week by North Springs Resources Corporation out of Nevada, United States, Guyanese authorities have no record of its new mining operations in the Caribbean nation.
Following the announcement on the worldwide web that North Springs had reached an agreement to acquire to gold mining properties in Guyana, the ministry with responsibility for the mining sector issued the following in an advisory: “the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission is not aware of a company called North Springs Resources Corporation (NSRC) doing business in Guyana with respect to Mining or Mineral Properties…It must be pointed out that North Springs Resources Corporation has not contacted nor informed the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission of any joint-venture of any Letter of Intent with any Mining Company or Mineral tenure in Guyana.”
Sources in government have suggested that the report by North Springs was a possible hoax aimed at inflating its shares on the US stock market and disclosed that the matter is currently under active investigation and letters to that effect were currently being prepared to send to the relevant authorities in the United States.
There could be some bearing to this suggestion as TECH 24, a web-based stock watcher, reported within hours of the initial North Springs announcement that shares of North Springs Resources Corp. (OTC: NSRS) were rallying in trading, having shot up 9.32% higher at US$0.435, with volume at 5.32 million.
The initial report, which appeared in a number of business feeds on December 6, including the Wall Street Journal’s MarketWatch, stated that within 48 hours of finalizing a Definitive Agreement to prospect for gold on 25,000 acres of land in Guyana adjacent to the Omai Gold Mines operation. The company reported that it had reached an agreement in principle to acquire a 100 per cent interest in two prospecting licences in the prolific gold producing region known as the Kaburi gold mining area in Guyana’s Upper Takutu, Upper Essequibo Region.
The Company is said to be compliant with the United States Security Exchanges Council with its President, CEO and CFO listed as Harry Lappa.
"This is a fantastic opportunity for North Springs to acquire two very large properties right in the middle of one of the most important gold producing regions in the world. The location of the properties, their geologic setting, and their history of artisanal mining all combine to give this project huge potential upside with relatively low early stage risk," stated Lappa. "The widespread artisanal mining in the area is a very an important exploration factor for us to consider. The Omai Mine, to the southeast was worked for many years by artisanal miners before being re-discovered as large scale commercial mine with over 4 million ounces of gold produced. We intend to find out if the artisanal workings on the R-20 and R-21 are also just the tip of a much larger deposit lurking underneath."
The Kaburi gold mining area is part of a well-defined 1,000 mile long band of gold producing greenstone geology from Venezuela and French Guiana.
The transaction as reported by the US based Company purportedly now hinges on, “among other things, North Springs and the vendors entering into a definitive agreement and completion of satisfactory due diligence by both parties.”
According to Forbes.com Lappa “is the sole member of the Company’s Board of Directors and is the Company’s President, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer, and Secretary.
The North Springs Resources Corp report that appeared had stated that extensive surveys were conducted by the GGMC on the land in question and have already unearthed moderately to strongly anomalous gold concentrations within both properties that warrant immediate follow-up.
“The surveys on the mining plots revealed that it shares geological and geochemical characteristics with several well-known gold producing mines in the immediate area at Omai, Kaburi, Eldorado and Hicks.” The company claims that from 2004 to 2008, Lappa was President and Director of a publicly traded resource exploration company, with offices in both North, and South America and during his tenure, the company maintained holdings of over 400,000 lease acres in Brazil, and the company completed over 7,700 line kilometres of airborne electromagnetic geophysical survey (VTEM) by helicopter, thereby allowing the company to identify multiple drill targets.
“During this same period, over $3 million was raised in the public markets to further property development.” Click here to receive free news bulletins via email from Caribbean360. (View sample)