Bacanora Lithium PLC (AIM:BCN) said a court in Alberta, Canada has issued a judgement in favour of the Estate of Colin Orr-Ewing regarding the validity of a lithium royalty over the Sonora project.
AIM-listed Bacanora is challenging the validity of a previously reported 3% royalty over the MSB concessions within the Sonora lithium project, payable to the Orr-Ewing Estate, and was seeking to have the royalty declared invalid.
Bacanora’s claim is that the royalty was originally granted based on a negligent or fraudulent misrepresentation by Orr-Ewing that he held a pre-existing royalty granted prior to the acquisition of the MSB concessions by Bacanora.
The lithium development company said it intends to appeal this judgement and maintains that the royalty is invalid on the grounds of misrepresentation and a lack of consideration.
The Sonora project has 8.8 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent resources, with an approximate 250-year resource life, according to a December 2017 feasibility study.