fwiw - does show environmental movement's hatred for gold mining:
Rocky Mountain News
Newmont denies corruption
Lawsuits against company say taped conversations will prove wrongdoing
By Heather Draper and John Accola, News Staff Writers
June 8, 2002
While Newmont Mining Corp. Chief Executive Wayne Murdy was in Australia this week unveiling a "new Newmont," the old Newmont was taking a thrashing in three separate lawsuits filed in Colorado courts.
In Adelaide, Murdy told former Normandy Mining Ltd. shareholders they are on the threshold of an exciting future. He outlined the new global corporation's goal of increasing shareholder value by boosting gold reserves and cutting $400 million in non-core assets.
The litigation hasn't had an impact on the stock of Newmont, which acquired Normandy in February and became the world's largest gold company. The stock reached a 52-week high of $32.75 on Tuesday.
Several analysts interviewed this week said they are still bullish on the company, as Newmont passes off the lawsuits as old news.
Newmont's latest denial -- a one-page, bulleted statement -- came Friday, along with a former high-ranking State Department official's defense of his actions on behalf of Newmont.
The lawsuits filed in state and federal courts detail allegations of human suffering and environmental misdeeds in three Peruvian villages stemming from a widely publicized Newmont mercury spill in June 2000. Plaintiff's lawyers, fighting Newmont's efforts to move the litigation to Peru, argue the company is so powerful in Lima that it can easily sway a judicial system that has a well-documented history of corruption.
Spy chief on video
To prove the point, plaintiff's attorneys have introduced as evidence taped conversations and transcripts of at least one Newmont executive meeting with Peru's former spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos, the now-jailed powerbroker whose videotaped bribe-taking led to the downfall and exile of former President Alberto Fujimori.
The 1998 meeting, said the attorneys, lends further support to old accusations and media reports that Montesinos pressured a Supreme Court judge on behalf of Newmont to rule in the company's favor in a business dispute.
In Peru, few doubt Montesinos didn't intervene. In January 2001, a 1998 videotape surfaced, purportedly showing Montesinos urging Chief Justice Jaime Beltran to rule in favor of Newmont's bid to win a stake in Peru's Yanacocha gold mine. In a 4-3 decision, the Supreme Court voted for Newmont, with Beltran casting the tie-breaking vote.
Still, none of this has fazed Wall Street.
John Tumazos of Prudential Securities in New York has a "sell" recommendation on Newmont but said it has nothing to do with the controversy in Peru.
"I'm not familiar with that," Tumazos said. "My concern is that the company's gold reserve base fell last year."
Analyst Dan Quinn of Morningstar Inc. said corruption is part of doing business in underdeveloped countries.
"A lot of mining companies do work in underdeveloped countries," Quinn said. "They're always being accused of not being good stewards of the environment, so I don't think these allegations will hurt Newmont."
Good as gold
The timing of lawsuits is ironic: Newmont has been riding high since its three-way merger with two(cont)
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