March 14, 2023
Shastri Ramnath
President, CEO & Director
Exiro Minerals Corp.
Shastri.Ramnath@exirominerals.com
Dear Ms. Ramnath:
Thank you for your March 9 email in response to our February 21 letter; however, your email contains misrepresentations. Your letter states that: “It appears that there is a misunderstanding that our focus will be on Crawford Pond and the immediate area around it.” You further state that you would like to address concerns that are based on “misinformation.” As an example of what you call our “misinformation” you say “mining ordinances do not allow for mining underneath Crawford Pond.” There was nothing in our letter to you or in any of our communications that suggested in any way that we assume you intend to mine underneath Crawford Pond. Moreover, it is abundantly clear to us that your desire (as you stated in the February 15 Union workshop) is to explore “a much larger area” than Crawford Pond. Your use of red herrings to try to dupe the residents of Warren and Union into thinking that we have misapprehended your intentions is not the way to open a good faith dialogue with us.
You repeatedly stated at the February 15 workshop that your desire was to explore “with the support of the community.” You stated the following:
“The worst case scenario is that we decide the community is not on side and we would leave.”
“We firmly believe that for any exploration project to be successful, there must be support from local communities.”
“We don’t want to fly this program if we’re told that the community doesn’t want or the majority of the community doesn’t want any kind of exploration.”
The people have responded with resounding concern about their water, their air, the noise and the risks to wildlife, their health and their property values, among many other things. They’ve done their research and they’ve given you their answer. Metallic mineral exploration is not welcome in our towns. What more does the community need to do to show you the overwhelming opposition to your exploration activities?
If you are true to your word (as stated in your March 9 email) that you would “like to participate in the effort to protect Crawford Pond and other water resources in the area,” there is an easy way to do that – move on.
You close your email by requesting a meeting with us. We will consider a meeting with you, but only if it is in a public forum subject to your providing certain information to the public in advance of the forum. On February 15, you stated that you wanted to be “transparent.” Transparency to CARMA means having our discussions in public. You also stated on February 15 that you wanted to work in “partnership” with the community. A partnership is voluntary and only entered after the parties invited into the partnership have done adequate due diligence. In that spirit, we request the following preliminary information to enable the community to evaluate your good faith and financial wherewithal:
(1) Please identify every person and entity that has a financial interest in Exiro and the Nickelwise mining project.
(2) Please provide the past three years of financial statements for Exiro.
(3) Please state whether you have acquired any additional property or leasehold interests in the towns of Warren, Union or Hope and, if so, identify the details of those interests.
(4) Please provide all written communications you have had with State and local agencies and officials.
(5) Please confirm you will not begin any exploration activity (including, of course, flyover exploration) unless and until you have support from at least the majority of the residents of Warren, Union and Hope.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely yours,
The Board of Directors of CARMA
From: Shastri Ramnath
To: CARMA.Maine@gmail.com …
Thu, Mar 9, 1:30 PM
Dear Bill Stinson and Ike Johnson,
We received your letter dated Feb 21st, 2023 and I understand that you are the key contacts for the Citizens Against Residential Mining Activity (“CARMA”) advocacy team. I am reaching out in hopes that you are available to meet with us.
We understand that your group has formed in response to Exiro’s interest in carrying out mineral exploration activities around Union and Warren, Maine. Based on your press release and the letter you sent to various government officials (cc’d), it is clear that you have many concerns about Exiro’s potential activities in the area and are advocating for protection of Crawford Pond.
It appears that there is a misunderstanding that our focus will be on Crawford Pond and the immediate area around it. We would appreciate the opportunity to relieve your concerns and to understand better the specific concerns and sensitivities around Crawford Pond as well as other lakes in the area. Given CARMA’s role as advocates for Warren and Union, a meeting with you could address your key concerns, especially the ones that are based on misinformation. For example, the mining ordinances do not allow for mining underneath Crawford Pond, so there is no reason to explore there. In fact, we would like to participate in the effort to protect Crawford Pond and other water resources in the area.
We request a meeting with you with the goal of listening to your concerns and responding to them as best as we can. Please let us know your availability and we can arrange a Zoom call with myself and Valerie Pascale.
Thank you,
Shastri
Shastri Ramnath, MSc, MBA, P.Geo. ICD.D
President & CEO