Photo Kitco News

(Kitco News) - Winshear Gold (TSX-V: WINS) announced Thursday that it has filed its Memorial with the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, a part of the World Bank group, outlining the nature and quantum of its claims against Tanzania for the expropriation of the company's retention licences over the SMP gold project, located in SW Tanzania.

The company said that Tanzania's expropriation of the SMP gold project breached its obligations under the 2013 Tanzania-Canada Bilateral Investment Treaty, which protects investors against developments that included expropriation.

The company noted that the Memorial provides the basis for compensation to Winshear in the amount of C$124,781,945, including interest which continues to accrue.

CEO Richard Williams commented, "Establishing C$124,781,945 as compensation for Tanzania's expropriation of the SMP gold project is a very important milestone for Winshear. Tanzania's actions have rendered valueless years of investment in the country. We have made every attempt to work with the Tanzanian Government to reach an amicable settlement since they cancelled our retention licences but they have provided us no choice but to pursue the legal route."

Between 2006 – 2017 the company acquired, explored and discovered a gold resource at the SMP gold project. As of 2017, the company held four retention licences which contained the entire mineral resource defined to that date.

The company said that in July 2017, without any consultation with industry participants and investors, the Government of Tanzania passed new legislation abolishing the retention licence classification. On December 19 & 20, 2019, the Government of Tanzania put all of the area formerly held by Winshear under retention licences out to tender, thereby completing the expropriation of the SMP gold project. - Vladimir Basov, Kitco News