Business
Almaden Minerals Completes Social Impact Assessment at Ixtaca Project
VANCOUVER, BC--(Marketwired - December 12, 2017) - Almaden Minerals Ltd. ("Almaden" or "the Company")(TSX: AMM) (NYSE American: AAU) (NYSE MKT: AAU) is pleased
About this update from Almaden Minerals Ltd.
[{"type":"text","content":"VANCOUVER, BC--(Marketwired - December 12, 2017) - Almaden Minerals Ltd. (\"Almaden\" or \"the Company\")(TSX: AMM) (NYSE American: AAU) (NYSE MKT: AAU) is pleased to announce that in the Spring of 2017 it engaged an arms-length consultant to conduct a Social Impact Assessment (\"SIA\") of the Ixtaca Project. Almaden has now received a summary report of the SIA, which provides objective insight into the degree to which community members understand the Ixtaca project, and provides a valuable road map for further interactions with the communities who live local to the Ixtaca project area in Puebla State, Mexico. The SIA was completed by Juan-Pablo Gudiño of GMI Consulting (\"GMI\"). GMI is a Mexico City-based group which provides social and environmental consulting services to government and industry. In 2015 it was recognized by Consulting Magazine as one of the 50 most important consulting companies in Mexico. Juan-Pablo Gudiño is a lawyer with a Doctorate in Constitutional Law with a specialty in Human Rights, Environment, and Economics, with twenty years experience in environmental, constitutional, human rights, and labour law. He has attended hearings and cases before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and trials before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. He has also represented the Mexican State and presented Mexico's position before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, headquartered in Washington, regarding Megaprojects and Indigenous Consultation and Energy Reform, resulting in the acceptance of the country's position. Juan-Pablo has participated in more than 30 consultation processes. In Mexico, only the energy industry requires completion of a SIA (known in Mexico as a Trámite Evaluación de Impacto Social, or \"EVIS\") as part of the permitting process. The purpose of these studies is to identify the people in the area of influence of a project (\"Focus Area\"), and assess the potential positive and negative consequences of project development to assist in the development of mitigation measures and the formation of social investment plans. To Almaden's knowledge, this is the first time such a study has been completed in the minerals industry in Mexico, and as such reflects the Company's commitment to best national and international standards in Ixtaca project development. The work to complete t...