Bre-X Minerals

[maplesyrup]

Nortel, Bre-X, Livent — where are our Googles?

Does anyone remember Bre-X Minerals? What really happened there? Who were the culprits? Why did the RCMP stop cold with their investigation? Why has there never been a court case? What about John Felderhof - the company's geologist, who was responsible for the gold discoveries, and who says the gold is still there, but has never ever returned to Canada since the resuts of no gold were announced. WTF?

[maplesyrup]

"Suahrto family had engineered the salting of the Bre-X gold mine

Is this for real?

[maplesyrup]

One thing I was always suspicious about - de Guzman committing suicide by jumping out of that helecopter. I do believe he was either thrown out or he is still alive. He was in no way suicidal, the man had 2 or more wives, right up there with those folks at Bountiful, BC.

[maplesyrup]

Editorial: By any other name

This is about the stupidist editiorial I have ever encountered. Especially in light of the news that the Indonesian Royal Family, the Suhartos, were behind the fraud. What do you think?

[maplesyrup]

Well, in light of the latest news, it certainly seems like Jennifer Wells, as well as the authors of the other, was it 3 books on the Bre-X gold fraud, similar to the Bre-X corporate executives, actually didn't have a clue what was really going on concerning the involvement of the Suharto family in the salting of the gold.

And actually it was the investigative work of a Canadian forensic mining expect, hired by the CEO of Bre-X, that figured how and where the fraud took place, specifically about the salting of the gold.

But who was behind it, this latest news bombshell concerning the Suharto family, is sure to set tongues wagging once again.

[maplesyrup]

The RCMP were investigating Bre-X, and then out of the blue they put their invrestigation on hold. Does anyone know why the RCMP didn't pursue the case as apparently they knew who actually did the salting, based on a report done for the Bre-X CEO, but not necessarily who was pulling the strings behind the scene? Is there anyone here at all familiar with the case?

[Cartman]

I am familiar with the case, but like so many events it seems as though there never was a real conclusion. I think that people lost all interest once the stocks crashed completely. I just found it interesting how the media reported that he just "fell out of a helicopter". I mean it was devoid of any context. They made it sound as though he should have been wearing better shoes or something.

Every time I read yet another instance of corporate wrongdoing and lax government regulation, I want to pull out more $$ from the market (gov't bonds have treated me well). I just managed to avoid both the Nortel and Tyco messes (pulled out in time after being significantly involved in both companies). I worry though, if at some point in the future, I am going to get burned big time. How do you know that your next few investments will not go the way of Bre-X? You do not.

[Stoker]

Was just flicking through the program guide on my TV, and noticed that History Channel is showing a program on the Bre-X scandel tonight at 10pm Pacific time.

[maplesyrup]

Stoker....thanks for the heads up about the show. I saw your post too late and I don't receive the history channel. I am curious what they said about who was responsible for this debacle - did anyone watch it?

[playfullfellow]

I didn't watch the whole thing right to the end, couldn't keep my eyes open anymore but the show definately leaned towards blaming the geologist and the founder of Bre-X. If peoplel had doen their research before investing, they would have found both of these men had quite dubious pasts.

[maplesyrup]

My understanding is that the company was split up into basically two sections: the fund-raising part which was the responsibility of the founder, and which was the successful part, and the geological part, or the supposed gold discovery part, by the geologist, which turned out to be the disasterous part.

I don't think anything necessarily was done wrong in the Canadian end of things, the fund-raising part; however, I'm quite intrigued by the geological end of the mining operations end of things in Indonesia.

I also found it telling that when the shit hit proverbial fan so to speak, the founder stayed and dealt with all the aftermath, the press, the irate shareholders, the RCMP, etc., while the geologist has never returned to Canada, and has been holed up in Cayman Islands ever since.

My understanding is that if you are out in the field and you have what you think is a profitable ore body discovery, you basically sleep with your core samples. In other words, you never let them get out of your sight. I'm not sure this process was ever followed.

Also when you have core samples and you are going to send them to the assay office, the geologist would normally keep one half of the core sample as back up. This process was not followed, and the whole core sample apparently was crushed up, and sent to the assay office.

Even more intriguing, there was someone that the founder had brought in from a major mining company, Barrick Gold, with impeccable credentials, who was on the Board of Directors of Bre-X, who supported this crushing of the complete core sample process.

I also remeber there being a fire in the core sample area on Bre-X's property in Indonesia.

As well, there was a subsidary of SNC I think, that had been hired by the founder to oversee the testing of assay results. The name of the company escapes me at the moment.

I do remember though, what happened when, after Freeport had been awarded the major partner position to develop the mine by President Suharto's people, and they came back with the results of their testsing showing no gold.

The founder immediately hired a firm to to conduct a forensic audit which confirmed there was no gold, and they, or another company even found out how the assays were tampered with, where it was done, and by who. The whole report was on on the Internet for years although not sure if it is still around.

Throughout that whole sorry process though the founder stayed and faced the music, and I think the stress of it all actually eventually killed him.

The geologist on the other hand has never ever returned to Canada, even though he has been on trial over insider trading charges by the OSC, which is still ongoing if you can believe it. He wouldn't even return to Canada when the results of the no gold by the consultant were delivered to Bre-X.

Now we have reports that suggest the Suharto family were actually involved in the fraud, and a possible Bre-X connection with the man caught in the Shuswap area of BC.

Dubious past can mean a lot of things, but i am not aware of any criminal activity on the part of either of the two principals. I know when there is a catastrophe people do look for someone to blame and there is no question that people were looking for a scapegoat or somebody to hang the event on. I find it amazing though that the RCMP stopped their investigation, and now the news of the Suharto family involvement and yet narry a word from any ofr the several different authors, with supposed solid research skills.

This reminds me a lot of the press. One journalist get a lead or a story ,and like a bunch of sheep, many of the other journalists jump on board. Where is the critical thinking?

All very strange. Do you think we will ever know the real truth?