Barrick sues New Gold over El Morro - Chile

Barrick Gold (NYSE: ABX) has filed a lawsuit against New Gold (TSX, NYSE: NGD) for exercising its right of first refusal on the El Morro gold project in Chile, according to a statement by New Gold.
In October Barrick made an agreement with Xstrata (LSE: XTA) to acquire the latter's 70% in the project for US$465mn, a deal that depended on New Gold not exercising its right of first refusal.
However, this month Goldcorp (NYSE: GG) made a deal with New Gold in which it agreed to pay US$463mn for the company to exercise the right and then transfer the 70% to Goldcorp, thus obstructing Barrick's plans to gain control of the stake.
"New Gold is unaware of any fact or circumstance that would support any of the allegations being made by Barrick and believes that the claim is completely without merit," read the company's statement issued Thursday. "New Gold intends to defend this action using all available legal avenues."
New Gold also owns the other 30% of the project.
Located in Chile's northern region III, El Morro has 8.3Moz of gold and 6.3Mlb (2.86Mt) of copper in measured and indicated resources.