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Bre-X Gold Scandal Is Detailed
Tuesday, July 22, 1997; 1:01 p.m. EDT
NEW YORK (AP) -- Ingredients for one of the
world's biggest gold scams: one pool table,
lots of crushed rock, and just 60 ounces of the
precious metal.
Private investigators have pieced together how
a geologist for Bre-X Minerals Ltd. altered
samples from the Busang mine in Indonesia,
according to a report Tuesday in Toronto's The
Globe and Mail.
The remote mine on the island of Borneo was
once thought to be the richest gold find this
century, containing anywhere between 70 million
and 200 million ounces of the metal.
Strathcona Mineral Services, the consulting
company that discovered the hoax, told The
Globe and Mail that investigators found a local
tribesman who sold gold to Bre-X geoligist
Michael de Guzman.
The investigators contend de Guzman and others
carefully mixed that gold with crushed rock on
a pool table at Bre-X offices in Samarinda, a
coastal town on Borneo.
Starthcona's president, Graham Farquharson,
told The Globe and Mail that de Guzman probably
used about 60 ounces of gold, worth about
$21,000.
Officials with Strathcona and Bre-X Minerals
did not return phone calls seeking comment
Tuesday.
De Guzman plunged to his death from a
helicopter March 19, shortly before the hoax
was exposed. Bre-X claims he committed suicide,
but his family in the Philippines believes he
may have been killed.
Strathcona conducted its own investigation into
Busang and reported May 3 that it was a hoax
``without precedent in the history of mining.''
Bre-X's stock, once worth more that $200 a
share because of the excitement about Busang,
became nearly worthless when it opened for
trading a few days after the Strathcona report.
Bre-X has since filed for bankruptcy protection
from its creditors.
The private investigators working in Indonesia
were hired by Bre-X and are being advised by
one of Strathcona's geologists, The Globe and
Mail said. Detectives from the Royal Canadian
Mounted Police are also investigating. |
