PanTerra Gold Ltd. will seek up to US$25 million in damages from the Dominican Republic government, claiming the latter failed to meet its contractual obligations relating to the company's Las Lagunas gold-silver tailings project.
The company's EnviroGold (Las Lagunas) Ltd. subsidiary informed the government of a potential claim on the grounds that the Dominican Republic was unable to provide a suitable dam site for storing reprocessed tailings as stipulated under the parties' contract, which led to higher costs and reduced gold recoveries.
PanTerra said May 24 that the government has not reacted to the communication from the subsidiary, which is moving to issue a formal dispute notice.
If the parties fail to negotiate a settlement, the dispute will proceed to arbitration in Washington, D.C., under the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes.
In late 2017, PanTerra noted the Dominican Republic government's lack of support for the Las Lagunas project, warning that it would cancel a plan to process imported concentrate to keep the plant operating beyond mid-2019.
