Alan and the rest of you gentlemen, new comments by some of the conspirators.Tuesday, April 15, 1997
Facing reality on Busang
Prestigious brokerage says Freeport results 'aren't going away'
SNC Lavalin stands by Bre-X assay results
By SANDRA RUBIN
The Financial Post
Tough new questions surfaced about Bre-X Minerals Ltd. yesterday as a respected British
brokerage told investors it's likely Busang has some gold -- but
it may not be enough to warrant a mine.
"Someone's got to take the bull by the horns here," said Matt
Sutcliffe, head of mining at 130-year-old Williams de Broe.
He said Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.'s statement
that it found "insignificant" amounts of gold in preliminary testing
of the Indonesian strike can't be brushed aside.
"The key point you need to focus on are those Freeport holes,"
Sutcliffe, a mining engineer, said in London. "They aren't going
to go away.
"Four of the seven were drilled next to Bre-X holes and three
were drilled across the strike, in other words at an angle that
should intersect different layers of an alleged ore body in a rich area. Why is there no gold in it?
"The reality's staring us right in the face. It'd be highly unusual for those seven holes to not show up
some gold."
The answer should lie in the 11.8 tonnes of Busang core samples that were being flown to
Australia over night. John Felderhof, Bre-X's chief of exploration, was planning to follow close
behind, as were experts from Toronto-based Strathcona Mineral Services Ltd., hired in the wake
of the controversy to conduct an independent assessment of the gold find.
The ore samples, which have been kept under heavy security, will be crushed in Perth and sent to
three different labs for analysis, said Nia Sarinastiti, a spokeswoman for Busang Gold JV -- a
coalition formed to develop the property. The results should be known early next month.
Sarinastiti said in Jakarta that things are very quiet at Busang as everyone awaits the outcome of
the independent audit.
"The people are all there, but they're just basically taking care of the samples and things like that,"
Sarinastiti said.
She confirmed reports that the Indonesian government will exclude two applications for contracts
of work submitted by Bre-X from a group of 68 due to be approved later this month.
"It's because of all the problems," she said. "They've been receiving a lot of questions, so it's being
postponed."
The contracts, for the southeast and northwest zones of the Busang property, are crucial for the
further exploration and development of the Busang.
The Indonesian paper Kompas quoted Simon Sembiring, head of the subdirectorate of mining
development, as saying the new agreements will tighten supervision of programs to be carried out
by international mining companies.
"This shows the seriousness of the government regarding mining investors who are going to invest
in Indonesia," he told the newspaper.
He said when calculations were not rational, or programs could not be completed on schedule, the
government has the right to cancel the plan.
Meanwhile, results of a second autopsy on the body of Michael de Guzman, carried out in the
Philippines at the request of his family, are expected to be made public today.
Simplicio (Jojo) de Guzman said yesterday his brother couldn't have written a note that has been
attributed to him.
He said there wasn't time during a 17-minute helicopter ride for his brother to have written the
suicide note. De Guzman is reported to have died when he fell from a helicopter in Indonesia
March 19.
"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 in such a short time."
-- with files from Reuter, Dow Jones
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