Tony:
Ron P., thanks for starting this thread. There are many fine
companies that may temporarily get caught up in this fiasco, and
there are now values that were totally unexpected a week ago.
It will be necessary for these companies to clarify their assaying
techniques and show to all the world that they are trustworthy.
Corriente has done that in a shareholder update, which I will include
at the end of this note. Tony, that note on Barrick's due diligence
wiht "100 holes drilled" is amazing. I tend to agree with you that
Freeport announcement on 7 holes was premature, and it is unlikely
that so many, including Kilborn, can be fooled. Yes there is a rat
somewhere, and I suspect that we will eventually get to the bottom of
it. It is unfortunate that so many shareholders have gotten burned
at one time. You are right. If Bre-x is vindicated, I would not
want to be in FCX' shoes.
Regards
Dan
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CORRIENTE RESOURCES
March 31, 1997
Shareholder Update
Events of the past few days have taken the junior exploration market by surprise and undoubtedly will continue to unsettle the market for some time to come. With the possible disappearance of tens of millions of ounces of gold in Indonesia at the Bre-x Busang deposit, it is understandable that investors would ask questions about the quality of asaying that has been done on other exploration projects around the world. One point to keep in mind is that altered assays cannot lead to the production of metals at a subsequent mine. As a result, assay problems will always come to light at some point. This means that since the consequences of altered assays are certain and severe, it is a tactic that is used by very few exploration companies and the best protection against this kind of activity is to invest in quality management.
Corriente Resources is currently drilling two main projects where assay procedures might be more closely scrutinized (Chama, Peru and Taca-Taca, Argentina). The Taca-Taca project is managed and funded by BHP Minerals, one of the largest mining companies in the world. All core handling and assaying procedures are managed by BHP personnel and asaying is done in BHP-approved labs( usually in Santiago, Chile). Chama is managed by Corriente Resources personnel in Peru and supervised by Vancouver staff. All core samples are shipped to Lima for sample preparation by Bondar-Clegg (a well known Canadian Assaying company) and then forwarded to Chemex Labs in Vancouver for fire assay for gold. In Vancouver, Corriente resources has retained the services of Analytical Laboratory Consultants who have prepared independent gold standards which are inserted into the sample stream prior to assaying by Chemex. In addition, Chemex inserts their own standards which means that the assaying has two sets of standards which are designed to monitor the assaying procedure and ensure that all results are produced wiht a high degree of accuracy.
Corriente Resources is comfortable witht the assay procedures and the quality of the data that is emerging from Chama and Taca-Taca and will continue to focus on building shareholder value at these two projects. We feel that the junior exploration industry had enormous successes over the past few years (such as Diamet, Diamondfields, and Arequipa) and there will be many more such success stories over the years ahead. Corriente Resources is working steadily towards such a success and your support as a shareholder during such periods of uncertainty is welcomed and appreciated.
Kenneth R. Shannon
President
For further information please contact Dan Carriere at 604-887-0449 |
