"We were not notified by the government to stop work and in our meetings with them they have not been able to give us any clarity about how the Mining Mandate would be applied to us (or when). However, the wording of the Mining Mandate, effective April 18 is very clear that no work is to happen on concessions. We can’t speak for other companies but we wanted to be on side with the law. At the same time we are doing our best to mitigate financial pain to our employees and keep local communities supportive. With no drills turning, we can’t keep 450 people employed. Most of them work to support the drilling even if they aren’t technical staff."

safeharbour