note, from Chapa in Chile: "Although many of us do not trust the judiciary nor the laws that the same mining companies wrote in their own favour, we will not allow the media to make it appear that the judgment favoured Barrick.

With respect to the sentence of the Court in the Villar/Nevada/Unda case set down yesterday, we inform you of the following:

1. The judgement only relates to judicial defects of form, committed by the same judicial power, not by either of the parties;

2. What it annulled was the part of the original judgment based on the paper that ordered the parties to meet to hear the sentence, for not having notified the parties of this resolution;

3. In turn, what annulled was only the reading of the judgment (not the judgment or its tenor) for not having been the original one signed by the secretary of the Court as specified in the Law;

4. What remains to be done is the following: to notify the parties by legal certificate of the "citation to hear sentence"; then the judge re-transcribes the original sentence, this time making the secretary of the Court sign it and ordering the parties be notified;

5. In addition, the final part of the judgment rejected all other previous appeals made by Barrick/Nevada against the previous judgment, among others, two in which the lifting of the embargo was, again, ratified and firmly denied. That is to say, "Tesoros" and "Amarillos" are still under embargo as are any activities and/or contracts in their respect." 

Canadian mining company Barrick Gold won a key legal battle in Chile�s legal system on Monday when an Appeals Court annulled a lower court ruling which, if it had stood, would have seriously hampered the company�s US$2.4 billion Pascua Lama gold mine project.

The planned mine in Region III will be the biggest ever foreign investment in Chile. Still, there are additional legal hurdles the mine must deal with, not to mention vociferous opposition by Chilean environmental groups.

Monday�s court decision had to do with a transaction that occurred in March, 1997, when Rodolfo Villar Garc�a agreed to sell 8,600 hectares of land surrounding the Pascua Lama site to Barrick Gold subsidiary Minera Nevada. The land provides crucial access to the mine site.

He was to be paid US$1 million for the property. Or so he thought. In fact, he actually received 10,000 Chilean Pesos, approximately US$19. He then decided to sue the company.

Initially, Villar claimed that the multinational company had falsified the sale document. However, this was impossible to prove. In 2006, renowned plaintiff�s lawyer Hern�n Montealegre took on the case and changed the legal argument in the case.

Montealegre argued that the 10,00 pesos paid to Mr. Villar was so �derisory� or laughable as to be a negligible amount of money for such a large piece of property. In a 350-page legal brief, he claimed that, as such, the contract was essentially �without price� and, since a price is a prerequisite of a contract, the contract was null and void.

The first Chilean court to hear Montealegre�s argument was presided over by Judge Mar�a Isabel Reyes of the 14th Civil Court of Santiago. She agreed with the argument and, on June 19, 2006, after years of legal wrangling, ruled in favor of his client and ordered the land returned to Mr. Villar.

But on Monday Santiago�s 4th Court of Appeal of Santiago ruled that there were procedural errors in Reyes� judgment: she omitted the �summons to hear sentence� stage of the legal process and the ruling was not certified by the clerk of the court.

Barrick Gold is delighted with the outcome. Corporate Affairs director Rodrigo Rivas told the press, �We are very pleased with the favorable outcome in the Appeals Court and their unanimous decision. At Barrick we were always fully confident that the courts in Chile�s justice system would apply the law.�

Still, the intrigue runs deeper because of suspicions about Judge Reyes� conduct. As well as passing judgment without due process, the decision appears to have been very hastily made. Reyes was a replacement judge, standing in for presiding Judge Patricia G�mez, who was ill. The decision was made two days before G�mez returned to the bench, even though the case had been pending since 2001.

In fact, the ruling in the case was suspicious enough to provoke an investigation by specially appointed judge Juan Escobar Zepeda, who ultimately proposed a stiff sanction on Reyes � a two month suspension from judicial duties at half pay, transference out of the Santiago metropolitan region district, and procedures to strictly review her future conduct.

Unhappy about her treatment, Reyes is contesting the sanctions and has appealed to the Constitutional Tribunal, claiming that she was denied the right to a fair defense because she was unaware of the charges that she was investigated for. Chile�s constitution requires that all state actions be carried out in a public and transparent manner. As such, the disciplinary procedure brought against her by Sr. Escobar was unconstitutional, argues Reyes.

The Constitutional Tribunal agreed and the case will be heard in a public session of the Court of Appeal shortly.

Yet by denouncing the lack of transparency in the disciplinary case, Ms. Reyes may be complicating her position as regards to the initial decision. President of the Supreme Court Enrique Tapia told El Mercurio �You have to look at it from the point of view of the official being investigated. If she made a fraudulent judgment, secrecy could be to her advantage, as it may act as a shield for her.�

Barrick Gold, therefore, will be more than just an interested observer when her disciplinary case is held.
It is worth noting that Monday�s judgment favoring Barrick is based on a procedural technicality and not on the merits of Villar�s claim. Although his lawyer, Montealegre, has not commented publicly at the time of press, it is anticipated that further legal action will now follow.

After Monday�s judgment, Barrick Gold insisted that its Pascua Lama project �was never at risk. �Still, there are many obstacles that may yet block the Canadian firm�s Pascua Lama investment.

SOURCE: EL MERCURIO, LA NACI�N

Rob Bartlett (editor@santiagotimes.cl)