Century revives battle for Sulliden property

Century Minings (CMM-V) Margaret Kent believes her company will build a gold mine at the contentious Shahuindo property in Peru but Century will have to win a court battle against Sulliden Exploration (SUE-T) to do it.

Sulliden, the present owner of Shahuindo according the courts, issued a statement today outwardly refuting Centurys announcement that it had purchased Shahuindo for US$31 million from four companies that together claim ownership of the property.

In a statement issued by Century, Kent, whos president, said her company wants to produce 125,000 to 150,000 oz. gold per year by the fourth quarter of 2009.

We are going to build a gold mine at Shahuindo, Kent said. We are also confident in our legal position in the litigation surrounding the Shahuindo project.

Century believes that that the companies its buying are the rightful owners of the property. The company has also bought the adjacent Atimmsa project

After a three-year battle that ended last July, a Peruvian arbitration tribunal declared Sulliden had fully met the terms and obligations of a 2002 transfer agreement with Compania Minera Algamarca S.A.

At the same time, the 55th Civil Court in Lima ordered Algamarca, or any third party that could have acquired rights from Algamarca, to return the property to Sulliden. Algamarca is also prohibited from impeding Sulliden in its mining activities.

Algamarca applied for a mining permit for the property in the fall of 2006 but was rejected by the Ministry of Energy and Mines.

Since then, Sulliden reports that Algamarca has tried to transfer some of its mining concessions to other companies, which have then attempted to transfer their concessions to other companies.

As of 2005, Shahuindo had an indicated resource of 38 million tonnes grading 0.95 gram gold per tonne and 22.99 grams silver and an inferred resource of 0.62 gram gold per tonne and 12.83 grams silver.

Sulliden shares were up 4% today to 52 on a volume of 1.4 million shares.

Century shares closed 2.2% lower at 89 on 1.6 million shares.