REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA POLITICIAN CLAIMS THE MARJAN LICENSE IS ILLEGAL
The Newswire
Dec 5 2012
Canada
Montreal – Tuesday, December 5, 2012 – Mr. Bill Mavridis,
the President of Caldera Resources Inc. (the “Company”
or “Caldera”) issued the following release with respect to
certain media reports published in Armenia, stating the Marjan
Special Mining License HA-L 14/256 (the “License”) was issued
illegally to Global Gold Corporation’s (“GBGD”) subsidiary on
April 22, 2008. (see copy of NR online including all links:
)
This statement was made by Mr. Vardan Ayvazyan, the former Minister
of Environmental Protection (2001 to 2007), who currently sits as
an elected Deputy of the National Assembly (“NA”) of the Republic of
Armenia and Chairman of the NA Standing Committee on Economic Affairs.
These recent developments revolve around a public scandal in Armenia,
between GBGD and the former Minister of the Environment of Armenia,
Mr. Ayvazyan, over bribery claims made by GBGD back in 2007.
In a recent interview on Armenian Television, Mr. Vardan Ayvazyan
stated:
There has never, in the history of RA, been an example where a mining
license is given for a mine whose resources are not confirmed. This
means that without knowing the amount of material in a mine, I give
it to someone else to take that material away. However, I don’t know
why Global Gold receives a mining exploitation license for Marjan
mine whose resources are not confirmed. Meaning, no one can say how
much gold it contains (translation- see Caldera’s President’s Log at:
).
If the allegations made by Mr. Vardan Ayvazyan are true, that the
License was issued to GBGD without approved reserves, then Mr. Van
Krikorian and GBGD would be potentially liable for fraud and indeed
GBGD may actually be mixed up in the corruption of certain government
official, to game the system in their favor to extract this from this
License from the Government of Armenia.
In early 2011 Caldera commenced a review of the License in preparation
for the Arbitration case, which Caldera filed against GBGD. During
the review Caldera discovered that the reserves posted in the License
were historical in nature and the data reported in the License was
extracted from a 1995 report prepared by the local geological survey
team from Southern Armenia and not from the data prepared and filed by
GBGD’s exploration team for verification and approval by the Armenian
State Natural Resources Agency, also referred by its Russian acronym,
the “GKZ”.
Also in early 2011, Caldera made requests to the Ministry of Energy
and Natural Resources in Armenia for any and all correspondences
between GBGD and all government bodies, related to the Marjan project.
The search uncovered numerous documents that were never handed over
to Caldera during our initial due diligence review in 2009 and 2010.
Of interest was one letter issued by the Armenian State Natural
Resources Agency (“GKZ”) on December 26, 2008, signed by its Chairman
Mr. Khachik Saponjian. The letter was informing GBGD that their
application for verifying and confirming their reserves, submitted on
December 28, 2007, was terminated due defects and omissions in their
application. Oddly enough, the letter was issued 8 months after the
License was given to GBGD. The translated letter reads as follows:
No 020 – N/ 95
26.12.2008 To Mr. A. Boghosyan
The Director of “Global Gold Hankavan” LLC
Respectable Mr. Boghosyan
By the letter of the Agency of State reserves of the Minerals of RA
Natural No 020/11 dated August 05, 2008 you had been informed, that
the processing of the state mineral expertise of the justification
of the documents of the parameters of the conditions of Marjan
polymetallic deposit presented by your letter dated December 28,
2007 to the Agency was delayed because the authors of the documents
didn’t ensure that revealed defects and omissions are fixed.
Taking to consideration, that up to date the situation with fixation
of the documents is the same, the expertise of these materials has
been terminated.
You can take back your Report from the Agency of State Reserves of
Minerals of the Administration of the Ministry of Energy and Natural
Resources RA.
(s) Kh. Saponjian
By hand : Documents received on 29.12. 2008
(s)Karapet Vardanian
It is evident that the License was issued without verified and approved
reserves by the GKZ, as is required under Article 28 of the Mining
Code and the application for the License did not include approved
reserves as stipulated under Article 37 of the Concession Code.
Mr. Mavridis stated: “Given the context of our transaction with GBGD
and emails I received from Mr. Van Krikorian and Mr. Ashot Poghossyan
in 2009, where they admit that they were still working on the reserve
calculations, I personally believe Mr. Vardan Ayvazyan, when he claims
the License was issued illegally.
“From the facts outlined here, one can clearly adduce that Mr. Van
Krikorian and GBGD were aware that the License issued on April 22,
2008 did not include certified and approved reserves from the Armenian
State Natural Resources Agency. Considering that that Mr. Van Krikorian
is also operating other mining properties in Armenia, he knew or
should have known that it is impossible to receive a mining license
without certified and approved reserves. To make matters worse,
Mr. Van Z. Krikorian concealed the “termination” letter issued by
the GKZ from Caldera to fraudulently induce Caldera into entering
into an agreement with them to benefit from payments from Caldera.
“At the time, It never occurred to me that the License was issued
illegally, considering Mr. Krikorian signed an Officer’s Certificate
in April 20, 2010 claiming “there are no circumstances which are
likely to give rise to the revocation, suspension, modification or
non-renewal of the mining license”.
“I believe these developments will help Caldera to continue its fight
to protect its rights and maintain its interests in Armenia.
“I will be reporting back on this matter as soon as I have additional
information.”
Cautionary Statement
The forward-looking statements contained in this release are subject
to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results
to differ materially from the statements made.
Additional information related to the Company is filed electronically
on the System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval
(SEDAR) at Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor the
Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) accepts
responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
For additional information:
Contact:
Bill Mavridis President, Caldera Resources Inc.
1155 Rene-Levesque Blvd. West , Suite 2500 Montreal, Qc., H3B 2K4 Tel:
514-813-9200 new emails: [email protected] web site: