Court Ends Bid to Stop Transfer of Top Manganese Deposit

(Bloomberg) -- An arbitration court rejected a petition by a unit of Timis Mining Corp. to stop Burkina Faso from withdrawing its permit to mine the world’s largest manganese deposit.

The Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce’s International Court of Arbitration made the ruling on Pan African Minerals’ appeal on March 8, Remis Dandjinou, a spokesman for the West African nation’s government, said Wednesday in the capital, Ouagadougou.

Burkina Faso announced in April it will end its agreement with PAM to mine the Tambao deposit that contains estimated reserves of 100 million metric tons of manganese and is the world’s largest known resource of the steel-making ingredient.

Pan African Minerals was “very disappointed” with the decision, Managing Director Souleymane Mihin said by phone.

--With assistance from Katarina Hoije.

To contact the reporter on this story: Simon Gongo in Ouagadougou at sgongo@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andre Janse van Vuuren at ajansevanvuu@bloomberg.net, Paul Richardson, Renee Bonorchis

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