Minera IRL Provides Corporate Update

LIMA, Peru, Nov. 23, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Minera IRL Limited (“Minera” or the “Company”) (BVL:MIRL) (CSE:MIRL) expands upon the path forward following its recent settlement agreement with Corporacion Financiera de Desarrollo (COFIDE).

While the agreement with COFIDE, which was signed at midnight on November 10, 2020, is simple, it took extraordinary effort to complete. Dealing with government bodies is never quick or easy, but dealing with them during COVID-19 and the political roller coaster that has been the Peruvian Government for the past five years has added difficulty and delay to an already unpredictable negotiation. Since COFIDE made the Bridge Loan, Peru has had five new Presidents and these changes at the top have had a profound trickle-down effect on COFIDE’s Board of Directors, management and priorities.

Without the settlement agreement, Ollachea could not be financed. It was pledged as security for the Bridge Loan and COFIDE put the Bridge Loan into default status in 2017. The arbitration award did not fix this - when the arbitration panel determined that COFIDE’s decision to abandon its mandate to finance Ollachea was wrongful, it expressly declined to make a finding affecting the Bridge Loan because the Bridge Loan could only be adjudicated by the courts of New York State. In addition, COFIDE promptly asked the Peruvian courts to ‘annul’ the arbitration award, which application is only now being dismissed pursuant to the settlement agreement. So even with the arbitration award in hand, the Bridge Loan remained in default and the request for annulment remained pending, and financing Ollachea was hostage to the potential for years of expensive litigation in New York and Peru. This roadblock has finally been removed and, for the first time in years, Minera IRL can turn its collective energy back to the task of advancing Ollachea.

Advancing Ollachea

The initial effort to advance Ollachea is focusing on two fronts – updating the technical reports, construction plans and budgets and raising money. For the benefit of our newer shareholders, here is a recap of the evolution of the project:

• The Definitive Feasibility Study for Ollachea, based on 86 thousand meters of drilling, was completed in November 2012.
• In 2013, the Company completed a 1,234-meter tunnel to serve as the primary access for the mine and as a platform for further exploration.
• The Environmental Impact Study (EIA) was approved and the Construction Authorization was obtained in 2013 and 2014.
• In 2014, Mining Plus, an international mining consulting firm with extensive experience in the proposed underground mining method, updated the mine design. As a result: