From the Vancouver Sun
Bre-X potential still great, rival firm says
Busang property likely gold rich, but size still a question
Martin Howell
The Ottawa Citizen
Zurich -- Indochina Goldfields Ltd. chairman Robert Friedland said fellow Canadian miner Bre-X Minerals Ltd. probably has a major gold find in Indonesia.
Indochina president Edward Flood also said that it may consider investing in Bre-X or the gold find.
Bre-X, a Canadian mining company, says the Busang property contains 71 million ounces of gold, which would make it the world's largest deposit. Last month, its stock collapsed after disappointing drilling results.
Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc., which agreed in February to take a 15-per-cent stake in the Busang development, said it found "insignificant" quantities of gold on the property after drilling seven test holes last month.
"I would be astonished if there wasn't a significant gold deposit there," said Mr. Friedland, whose Canadian mining and investment company is exploring an area near Busang, which is located on the island of Borneo.
Mr. Friedland, in an interview at a gold conference in Zurich, would not speculate on the size of the Bre-X find. Strathcona Mineral Services Ltd., a mining consultant, is expected to issue new survey results in early May.
Indochina Goldfields has been exploring for gold in an area of three million hectares about 75 kilometres north of the Busang deposit.
Mr. Flood, who was attending the same conference, said the Bre-X controversy had presented Indochina with investment opportunities and Bre-X itself or Busang could be among them.
"We are not a producer so we are not directly affected by the gold price -- and we are cashed up and we are an opportunistic group," he said. "We will look at Busang and other competitors in Asia."
Mr. Flood declined to be more specific about Indochina's possible involvement. Still, the company has some powerful associates in Indonesia -- the Indonesian gold exploration is being pursued in a venture in which a group of Indonesian investors owns 10 per cent. Among them is one of President Suharto's sons, Bambang Trihatmodjo.
There was very little chance that Busang is a fraud, said Mr. Friedland, who was co-chairman of Canada's Diamond Fields Resources Inc. before the company -- the owner of one of history's richest nickel finds -- was sold to Inco Ltd. for $4.3 billion last year.
A fraud of that scale "would be an exquisitely difficult thing to achieve -- an amazing accomplishment," he said.
Mr. Friedland said his team of 38 geologists and 350 support staff in Borneo knew many of the Bre-X geologists and staff and nothing had surfaced to indicate a fraud.
"I am unaware of any anecdotal or any other information to indicate any unethical activity of any sort," he said.
Mr. Friedland said it was premature to comment on whether Indochina might be interested in investing in Bre-X, which was expected to get a 45- per-cent stake in the Busang development, or in Busang directly.
He said Indochina is confident that it will be able to mine gold in its exploration area.
"We are absolutely confident that we have discovered a series of highly prospective, extremely large, legitimate gold prospects." |
