Bre-X considering offers for
Indonesian mining properties
Sean Gordon
The Vancouver Sun
CALGARY -- Bre-X Minerals is entertaining offers and may soon have
a buyer for some of its Indonesian properties.
"I'd say our other properties may have some value, and we'll be
evaluating the offers," said Bre-X President David Walsh, who
acknowledged that the once-vaunted Busang prospect is virtually
worthless.
"We have had some third-party interest in other properties, though."
Strathcona Mineral Services will provide the company with a report on
Friday on the feasibility of the company's other sites in the Indonesian
provinces of Sumatra and Sulawesi, Walsh said.
A lawyer representing a shareholder lawsuit against Bre-X said the
company needn't bother pursuing Indonesian deals because they simply
aren't worth it, as is evidenced by continued expenditures there.
"The money is still going out the door," said Clint Docken, who filed suit
last week on behalf of 115 former shareholders.
"I don't know why they keep spending money in Indonesia."
Bre-X Minerals and its affiliated companies were able to collect on a few
debts last month and now has about $27 million in its coffers as it headed
into a court hearing Tuesday which will determine whether the company's
protection from creditors will extend beyond Oct. 31.
According to financial statements filed in Court of Queen's Bench by
Price Waterhouse, Bre-X's financial monitor, the company and its
subsidiaries has about $27.49 million of working capital, the bulk of
which is held in cash.
"These monitor reports have a lot more information than the previous
ones, shareholder dollars are still being spent," Docken said.
Walsh saw it differently, pointing to the monitor reports and saying that
Docken's contentions were "obviously only one side of the story."
The company spent about $2.6 million in commissioning a 17-volume
report by Forensic Investigation Associates and has spent $2.45 million
in legal fees since May.
The FIA report cleared Walsh and other company principles of
wrongdoing in the Busang fraud.
The court documents also report that Bre-X spends about $100,000 a
month to keep its Canadian operations afloat and $30,000 in Indonesia.
"When you have to dismantle four-and-a-half years of mining in five
months, it's not an easy thing," Walsh said.
"Under the worst circumstances our mining company could possibly
have, we've been very proactive we've had quite a lot of work to do
internally."
Walsh said that he's more willing to make public statements now that the
FIA report's conclusions are public, and that "shareholders need to hear
from me."
Docken said he will make another court application Friday to compel
Walsh to answer a number of questions that he refused to speak on in a
cross-examination last week.
"We feel that he should have to answer for everything."
If Docken and co-counsel Douglas McGillivray get their way Tuesday,
the company will sue Walsh on behalf of its shareholders. |
