Empire Energy Corporation Intl. (fka EEGC)

[oilsleuth]

It is unclear why Mr Bendall should think MRT acted unfairly and unreasonably in granting EL14/2009 for a only smaller area than the expired SEL13/98 (He apparently does not have an objection to the short 2 years term.)

No drill testing of target structures was carried as was required under the work conditions imposed on SEL13/98 and Bendall's "belief" expressed in PRs that all conditions of the SEL were met is clearly not in accord with the fact that no drill testing was undertaken.

For an exploration licence to be granted evidence has to be provided that the applicant is likely to have access to sufficient financial resources to carry out the proposed work program. It would appear that MRT did not find the submitted evidence to be entirely convincing.

That supporting evidence was provided in the WHK letter to the Director of Mines dated 30 September 2009 which was the date of the final expiration of SEL13/98 and it would have accompanied the application for a replacement EL. In a section of the letter headed 'Ability to Raise Funds' was stated that the source of funds would be the Shareholder Rights Offer and that Mr Bendall had received written notice of approval for an amount of $50 million from Abbey International Holdings Limited to be applied to providing finance to Empire Energy. If MRT had doubts about the firmness of that purported funding and chose to grant only a smaller and short term licence than applied for then subsequent developments have completely vindicated its reservations.

It’s hard to see what Bendall thinks he can achieve with his "legal requests" to the Mining Tribunal.

The Tribunal may well ask why over eight months have elapsed since the granting of the licence before these matters have been raised with it.