Excellent Point Peter. I think it is time the RCMP and the Canadian Government started an investigation into Southam Hollinger and what they are doing to Bre-X.
Wayne Barrick and clif get a life. There's nothing of any consequence in that article. Bre-X has been dissected enough. I'm sure if I had a pimple on my face you would find it. Let's start a giant investigation into Southam Hollinger and their connections with any mining companies involved, or that want to be involved, in Busang.
April 14, 1997
Family awaits results of autopsy on
Bre-X geologist
MANILA, Philippines (CP) - A Bre-X geologist who fell to his death
amid controversy over the Indonesian gold deposit he co-discovered
couldn't have written the suicide note attributed to him, his family says.
Results of an autopsy on Michael de Guzman were expected today.
In Jakarta, meanwhile, newspapers reported Monday that Indonesia
will exclude two applications for mining permits submitted by Bre-X
Minerals in a group about to be approved.
De Guzman's brother, Simplicio, said Bre-X's Filipino chief
geologist didn't have time to write the 10-page note during a
17-minute helicopter ride last month.
"Writing that letter aboard a helicopter was impossible," he said.
"The letter was so neatly written. It was so orderly. It was also
impossible to write such a long letter on such a short time."
Michael de Guzman had claimed Bre-X's Busang gold field
contained up to 200 million ounces of gold. The find stunned the
mining world.
But Bre-X later revealed a consultant had concluded the find may
have been overestimated. The company's U.S. partner,
Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold, said there were "insignificant"
amounts of gold at the site, leading to a frenzied sell-off of Bre-X
stock.
The helicopter pilot said de Guzman must have jumped, and police
said they found a suicide note in which the geologist said he was taking
his life because of a terminal illness.
But Simplicio de Guzman has fought the suicide allegations.
He said the family is to receive a report from a second autopsy on
his brother from Philippine forensic experts today. The family
requested the autopsy to verify whether his brother had an uncurable
disease, as the alleged suicide note states.
The family doubts the statement because a medical report obtained
shortly before de Guzman died showed he wasn't ill, he said.
The family also doubts the authenticity of the note because it
misspells the name of de Guzman's wife. Instead of Teresa, the note
says Theresa.
Last week, an Indonesian daily reported Filipino doctors found the
teeth of the buried body didn't match de Guzman's dental records. But
family members present at the Manila autopsy were convinced it was
him.
Bre-X has a 45 per cent stake in the deposit, Freeport holds 15 per
cent, the Indonesian government 10 per cent and Indonesian interests
the rest.
Bre-X has hired mining consultant Strathcona Mineral Services of
Toronto to carry out an independent audit on the Busang site to
determine the amount of gold in the property. The results are expected
in early May.
The debacle has long delayed the issuing of contracts of work for a
number of other mining companies, including some Canadian miners.
An official told Kompas newspaper the country's mines minister
plans to approve some contracts of work by the end of this month.
However, Bre-X's applications for its disputed gold deposit have been
put on hold, he said.
The permits, called contracts of work, are crucial for the further
exploration and development of Bre-X's Busang property.
Indonesia plans to tighten restrictions on some contracts of work,
said Simon Sembiring, head of the sub-directorate of mining
development.
Permits could, for example, restrict the area to be explored and
exploited to 62,500 hectares per concession, compared with the
current 250,000 hectares.
The government will place new emphasis on "supervision and
limitation of areas" rather than on potential revenues from taxes and
royalties, Sembiring was quoted as saying by the Bisnis Indonesia
newspaper.
"This shows the seriousness of the government regarding mining
investors who are going to invest in Indonesia," Sembiring said.
He said when calculations were not rational or programs couldn't be
completed on schedule, the government had the right to cancel the
investor's plan.
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