Some very interesting and thought provoking issues you raise.
First of all, I have no inside knowledge other than what is publicly
available from the company and what can be obtained from usual
searches/discussions. With that in mind...
1) Ledeux would not have obtained the samples themselves. They
would have been collected in a way that would have satisfied Le doux's
concerns about credibility of samples. This is the so-called
"chain of custody."
2) I believe it could have been predicted that the exchange would have
had issue with the chain of custody. After all, much rides on this,
including the ASE's credibility, particulary in light of other recent
fiascos (Timbuktu, et al..). The real question is why did it take
so long for the exchange to finally decide they had issue with the
chain of custody. There are several possible permutations. They may
have developed new evidence to cause them to suspect the chain of
custody. I don't honestly believe this the case. Naxos has been in
business for many years and I am sure this issue would have come
up before. Another possibility is that for some unknown reason, the
cards are heavily stacked against Naxos due to outside interests,
and the request by the exchange to start over from scratch regarding
acquisition of samples was in part orchestrated as a stall tactic.
Evidence that this is the case is largely circumstantial, but includes:
A) The exchange back-dated the suspension to 7/26, which effectively
shortens the time before Naxos is de-listed (I think the window is
about 6 months). Why would the exchange do this? Certainly Naxos
has made every attempt to comply with the ASE.
B) Since May, Naxos has been working furiously to demonstrate their recovery process.
After it was made known to the exchange that Naxos would attempt
to provide recovery values instead of assays to prove their assay results
the ASE suddenly decided they would only look at assay values.
They did this because the original reason why Naxos was halted had
to do with assay values. Why would they wait two months
before making it clear to Naxos that they didn't care about
recovery values, only assay values??!! There is no sound reason
other than delaying the trading of the stock.
C) Alleged short seller interests. I cannot confirm whether these
short sellers actually exist, but the rumors are tht Peter Brown
of Canacaard is very well connected and is heavily short the stock.
When I first heard this I was not that concerned that there could
be tampering because I pictured the ASE operating as legitimately
as any U.S. stock exchange. After talking with numerous brokers
and people who have had dealing with the Canadian stock exchanges,
I am now convinced that this is not the case.
Every single person I have talked to has had nothing but negative
things to say about the exchanges. I couldn't find even a
single individual who would come out and say that the
exchanges weren't corrupted. About two months ago, I personally
talked to a representative from the ASE, just to clarify a few
points, and I can tell you there was definitely an undercurrent of
negativism about Naxos. I did not get the feeling that Naxos was
well liked by the exchange. One would think that a rep for the
exchange would at least SOUND unbiased when talking to the public,
but this was not the case. It is clear to me that for whatever
reason, the ASE is facilitating a protracted time course for
Naxos' suspension.
3) I will agree with you that it is difficult to understand this
alleged "modified assay method." I cannot figure out exactly
why it works, other than that it needs to be done at a higher temp
to burn off unwanted platinates that somehow interfere with the gold
assays. What is most unclear is why it is so delicate that it is
difficult to reproduce. In any event, I believe the company because
they have been working on developing the franklin lake property since
the 1980's, and have spent ove ten million dollars on R and D. I
also have read the paper that Dr. Groves presented at the IPMI
conference last January and was very impressed that a significxant
amount of time and effort has gone into that recovery process. The
chemistry also seemed to make sense as well. I
dont believe a company would be able to fake the whole thing and
make it seem so believable. Another thing that makes me believe that
there is gold at Franklin lake is the geology of the area. It makes
perfect sense that there is gold there. All around the property
are other active mining concerns, and thus it makes sense
that if a river is running right through that area, it would pick
up minerals as it rushed along, and would possiblydeposit them in a lake
bed where water is rapidly evaporating. This is just common sense.
Allen and Company has been doing due diligence for many months and
if there was a gross scam I believe they would have uncovered it by
now. That they haven't pulled out yet probably means that Naxos is
not a fly by night company. That they havent closed the deal yet
probably has a lot to do with their P.R.- I think it would be in
poor form to put ten million dollars into a company tht was suspended.
Nonetheless, even if Naxos is delisted, if the company can continue
to get money for funding the development of the 200 ton per day
processing plant, they can eventually prove their case by demonstrating
the economical recovery of gold.
If they build it, they will come.
Keep up the interest
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