Greystar Resources, another very close neighbour of Galway’s, needed to produce a new environmental impact assessment unnerved investors. The government had introduced, without any form of discussion, a new law that required that mining activity be excluded from the ‘Paramo’ ecosystem, and part of Greystar’s proposed gold-silver operation at Angostura lies within it.

For those not au fait with Paramo, it is an ecosystem as defined by the Alexander Von Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute in Colombia. One of the parameters in the definition is altitude. All the project facilities and infrastructure for Angostura were designed to be higher than 3,200 metres, but in the light of Paramo the government requested that a suitable site was found that was lower down. This made a total nonsense of the definitive feasibility study that the company had expected to complete in the second half of this year and put a block on the process of raising the US$650 million in project finance required for construction.

The Colombian authorities changed their minds a few weeks later, but the damage was done. Investors lost confidence, took their money and scooted away, and this was at a time when the market had lost momentum anyway. Robert Hinchcliffe pointed out at the time that any change in the law would not affect Galway’s California gold property, located along strike just over two kilometres from Ventana's La Mascota property, as these concessions lie below 3,200 metres. At that time, in fact, Galway was carrying out exploration at its Vetas properties which are eight kilometres south east of its California gold project. The principle focus for the exploration programme here was on the El Volcan mine, which has been in production for over 400 years. And the El Volcan mine, which is above 3,200 meters of elevation, is currently operating and producing gold under an exploitation license that is valid for 26 years, so no retrospective legislation looks possible.

Since the Greystar kerfuffle Galway has got its own drilling programme going again at the California project. Initial results from the Pie de Gallo section should have been enough to excite investors. One hole intersected 89 metres at 3.2 grammes per tonne gold, and this included nine metres of 23.1 grammes per tonne gold within which was a three metre section grading 50 grammes per tonne gold, 383 grammes per tonne silver, 1.4% copper and 8% zinc. This drilling followed up on surface channel and chip sampling of outcrops which included 28 metres at 16.6 grammes per tonne gold, 34 metres at 3.8 grammes per tonne, and 16 metres at 4.5 grammes per tonne. The important thing, according to Robert Hinchcliffe, is that his company seems to have discovered a significant gold deposit within California.

However, that was all reported back in May and he hasn’t said much else since then. Shortly after that, though, Galway did increase its land package in the California district by a factor 67 per cent, and that has to be the action of a man who knows he is onto a good thing. Still, the strange thing is that nothing now been heard from the company for 11 weeks, while the shares have drifted lower and lower. Robert Hinchcliffe made no response to an e-mail requesting a quick chat to catch up on progress and the company uses a free phone line which blocks callers from overseas off after they have called more than two or three times. All with the best of intentions, no doubt, but it’s a big world out there and investors need access.

They will be focussed on the gold, but may find some comfort in the fact that Galway also has an exploration and joint venture agreement with Prodeco, a subsidiary of Xstrata which is the third largest coal producer in Colombia. Under this deal a 19 hole drill programme will be undertaken on Galway’s GALCA coal project. The drill programme is focused on two areas, the northern flank and the southeastern portion, which appear to have the highest prospects for the discovery of significant quantities of near-surface coal. No results here either yet, but the betting has to be that there could be something encouraging from both the gold and the coal before long. “How long?” is a question Richard Hinchcliffe will eventually have to answer, when he finally breaks cover