Frank,
<< MO must have done a remarkable job, after all here you are talking to yourself again. >>
<< So how have you been Michael, still out there wondering and thinking all for not I see. >>
Granted the posting has gone way down... mostly poetry and B.S.!! So has KRY and it is essentially flat right now. But there are fellow lurkers who have this string bookmarked and who do read the posts. Why fill up the servers with garbage? The purpose of these forums is to exchange ideas and facts and not denegrate the ideas of others (either pro or con) that don't agree with you. IMHO, those that post without presenting factual info are either hypersters (pro or con) or just looking for a conversation and some friendly talk.
FYI, I am still long KRY and carrying it at a small loss, but I accept it as a crap shoot. I am getting more and more concerned, however, about KRY's management and their deadening silence, their published lack of any vested interest to speak of in the Company, and their maneuvers behind stockholders' backs [ie.: this new private financing with its indecipherable gobbly-gook... would have been nice if they had released this info to their stockholders in simple English or don't they realize that they (management) don't own the Company. They
work for it!].
I pasted the below article that was in my e-mail last night. Again from Stockwatch... probably the same reporter (unnamed, of course). Not good!! Where is the infamous "M.O."? Where is KRY's management and PR department? I doubt if anyone bought KRY stock because of Albino. La Cristinas 4 & 6 are the name of the game!! But silence, particularly to the stock analysts, is a bad, bad move. Just curious if anyone knows who is paying management and how much. Since they don't seem to own stock (not a good sign in itself unless they have a barrel of options), I'm beginning to wonder if "M.O." doesn't stand for "money order"... our money, his order. If management can't explain their actions and efforts (or lack thereof) to protect OUR Company, then perhaps it's time to call a special stockholders' meeting.
Interested in hearing your thoughts or those of anyone else taking the time to read this long-winded post. I'm not trying to be negative, but I am trying to get some answers!!
Best always,
Marty
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Hang on for a lengthy legal battle, says director
Crystallex International Corporation KRY
Shares issued 34,000,000 May 15 close $6.20
Fri 15 May 98 Street Wire
EYEBROWS HOISTED OVER TEJERA-PARIS COMMENTS
by Stockwatch Business Reporter
The president of Crystallex International's Venezuelan operations, Dr.
Enrique Tejera-Paris, has told newspapers in Bolivar state that resolution
of the legal dispute between it and the Venezuelan government currently
before the supreme court may drag on for another two or three years.
Critics say that estimate is too low by half.
The head of Placer Dome Inc.'s Venezuelan operations, Carl Gagnier, agrees
the still-speculative legal case to annul ownership resolutions made by the
mines ministry in 1991 could take two to three years to be resolved -- even
after the court rules on the current appeals that have dragged on since
last July.
Mr. Gagnier, president of the joint venture Minera Las Cristinas (Minca)
says, however, that Crystallex would then be faced with annulling the work
contract awarded by the government agency Corporacion Venezolana de Guayana
(CVG). That could take many more years, he says, because Crystallex would
still need to secure the right to work the concessions. "So to annul the
ministry's rulings is two to three years, then I don't know how many years
to get the courts to annul the awards by CVG in (March) 1992," Mr. Gagnier
said in an interview from Caracus.
Crystallex president and CEO, Marc Oppenheimer, was unavailable for
comment.
In July 1997, the Venezuelan Supreme Court denied Crystallex the right to
sue over how the government awarded the Las Cristinas gold rights to the
Placer-led Minca joint venture. Vancouver-based Crystallex is appealing.
Dr. Tejera-Paris' comments appear to be the first time a Crystallex
official has offered an on-the-record estimation about the length of time
the company's current legal actions could take to be resolved. The
president and KRY director is assuming the court will agree with the
company and allow it to sue the government over the gold rights. Otherwise,
Crystallex's legal avenues could be closed with the upcoming ruling.
Crystallex boosters, however, say a "win" is just around the corner in what
they called the "fourth and final" court ruling on the ownership of Las
Cristinas. In fact, the best Crystallex can hope for is the court will
overturn its gold ruling and allow KRY to sue to nullify the ministry's
resolutions awarding the gold rights to CVG in 1991.
The court in July also ruled that Crystallex was allowed to sue over the
awarding of the copper rights at the concessions. As Placer-Minca were
deliniating its 11.8-million ounce gold deposit, it discovered significant
quantities of copper. Minca was awarded the copper rights in 1996.
What now is before the court are appeals by both Crystallex and Placer over
the admissions (copper rights) and non-admissions (gold rights) to which
they object.
While statements about the timing of the legal dispute are not particularly
controversial, (except to those who fear the KRY stock promotion may be
getting long in the tooth), other comments by Dr. Tejera-Paris appear to
have raised eyebrows in the region. (The interviews appeared March 12 in El
Expreso, and March 13 in Correo del Caroni. After a summary of the stories
were posted on an Internet chat site, Stockwatch secured translated
versions from Placer Dome's Caracas office.)
Apparently playing to the local audience, Dr. Tejera-Paris said the company
plans to help the government build a 450-km railway between the mining
region and Puerto Ordaz as part of its contribution to the industrial
development of the region. Puerto Ordaz is near the Brazil-Guyana border.
Dr. Tejera-Paris also says Crystallex plans to build a mining town with 800
houses, a church, a school, a park and a hospital.
The director did not suggest how money-losing Crystallex will pay for this
high-priced infrastructure.
In addition, Dr Tejera-Paris reports, Crystallex plans to establish an
environmental fund. With one eye on environmentalism, Crystallex also plans
to go underground at Las Cristinas, and extend the life of the mine to
between 50 and 60 years, rather than the 15-year open-pit operation
envisioned by Placer-Minca.
Dr. Tejera-Paris also has other social schemes, and says the company will
put them into action at the nearby Albino concession -- which holds fewer
than 500,000 ounces of gold and is Crystallex's only working asset.
According to the El Expreso account, Mr. Tejera-Paris inexplicably declares
the company wants women to make up the majority of workers at the mine.
Further, Dr. Tejera-Paris also states there are no mining professionals on
the Crystallex board of directors. "There are no longer miners there," he
told Correo del Caroni. "After Crystallex was restructured, the six-member
board of directors are solely lawyers and bankers."
As for rival Placer Dome, Dr. Tejera-Paris says it has "many mines in many
parts of the world, but all those mines are going down." He adds: "They are
only interested in saying that because of the decrease in their reserves
and the closing of their mines in Africa (and the drop in gold prices) then
they have to go looking for gold elsewhere. But the truth is that the only
company that is working here and that has been demonstrating that it has
the technology is Crystallex."
HISTORY OF LITIGATION
Eleven months before Dr. Tejera-Paris's arrival as Minera Venamo president
in February, Crystallex emerged claiming title to the Cristinas deposits.
That took place in March 1997, after it acquired Venezuelan concern
Inversora Mael, for a reported $30 million. Crystallex says Mael holds
title, or mineral rights, to the properties, and points to court rulings in
1991, 1996 and 1997 that ordered the ministry to gazette the transfer of
title to Mael in 1986.
Crystallex says this means they hold title to Cristinas today, but Placer
and the government both disagree. They say Mael signed away any and all
rights to the properties in 1991, and that the courts ratified this
agreement.
After identifying what it believes is a 11.8-million-ounce gold deposit,
along with significant grades of copper, Placer began construction of a
$600-million (U.S.) mine in August 1997. In January, in the midst of
plummeting gold prices, but citing the continuing legal dispute, Placer
announced a suspension of work at Las Cristinas.
Asked by newspaper Correo del Caroni what will happen to the potential mine
at the rich Las Cristinas 4 and 6 concessions while the matter is before
the courts, Dr. Tejera-Paris states: "Nothing. Nothing can happen. They
cannot do anything."
The appointment to the board of Dr. Tejera-Paris in November was cited as a
significant addition to the Crystallex team. He left the prestige post of
Ambassador to Spain to join the company, and in February was named
president of Minera Venamo, the renamed Crystallex de Venezuela.
Placer's Mr. Gagnier says the director's comments indicate Crystallex's
head of Venezuelan operations has a limited grasp of mining or business in
general. For instance, he says, the geology of Las Cristinas does not
permit underground mining. The gold is diffuse and not found in high-grade
veins. "There are some small vein structures," he says. "But these are
essentially the systems that the small-scale miners have developed and
abandoned."
Further, there is no need to build a railway -- even if Crystallex wins the
Las Cristinas concessions, he says. There will not be enough output either
of gold or copper concentrate to warrant a rail connection. Many
politicians have proposed building this railway, and none has succeeded, he
notes. Besides, he stresses, building a railway doesn't make economic sense
-- either from the point of view of the company's transportation needs, or
the country's transporation needs. "There's nothing there," he says of the
border region.
Mr. Gagnier says the interviews appeared to help improve Crystallex's
standing in the region. At the moment, he contends, Crystallex does not
have a reputation as a good corporate citizen, and Dr. Tejera-Paris'
statements were intended to win over public opinion. In fact, he says,
Crystallex's low standing with the public is the main reason it is changing
its name. "They're trying to say that the old problems were part of a
different management, that different people were involved in all that bad
history."
That "bad history" includes the absolute nullification of the so-called
Carabobo concessions following a congressional investigation and report
into allegations of wrongdoing and corruption regarding the properties in
July 1995. Mr. Gagnier says, however, the scandal is not foremost on
locals' minds any more. The concessions were returned to local control
through a mining cooperative.
Mr. Gagnier says, however, that miners, thrown out of work by the shut down
of construction at Las Cristinas, have protested against Crystallex, and
that the company is feeling the heat of public displeasure. The local
miners' union has organized public protests against the treatment by
Crystallex of illegal miners at Albino.
Crystallex, he says, tends to shoot at illegal miners rather than work out
compromises with these locals who often invade the property at night. "I
know they use armed guards on the property," Mr. Gagnier says. "I think
that's how they come to an understanding with the small-scale miners. If
you come onto the property, you run the risk of getting shot."
Said Dr. Tejera-Paris in El Expreso: "I do not see why anybody is
protesting. The court is doing its normal job."
Placer, however, has a program in place that allows small-scale miners onto
its property under controlled conditions. Minca formed a an association of
small-scale miners and allows them on certain portions of Las Cristinas
under controlled conditions.
Dorothy Atkinson, an analyst with Whalen Beliveau & Associates, says Dr.
Tejera-Paris' comments about going underground are not so unlikely as
Placer makes them out to be. "Instead of a huge mine, you'd have a small
mine that produced a little better-grade material over a much longer period
of time and pay off some of your costs up front," she says. "It's a very
common way of tackling deposits."
Ms. Atkinson, an early Crystallex supporter, says Placer also would adjust
its mining strategy in different ways depending on the price of gold. "In
the long term, it may be that Placer would go underground, too."
Commenting on the president-director's comment about the length of time to
resolve the legal dispute, Ms. Atkinson says it would not surprise her if
it took two or three years to be completed. "I don't think any of us
understood how long it was going to take because we were naive when it came
to how important it is to them," she says, referring to the government of
Venezuela. "You know, it's not important to them. We should have maybe
clicked to that."
The analyst counters suggestions Crystallex does not have the money to help
build railways or towns by saying Placer does not have the money, either.
"Think about it," she says. "They haven't got a loan based on this
property. What's the difference?"
Ms. Atkinson also offered a comment on Crystallex president Oppenheimer's
unwillingness to be interviewed. So far, Mr. Oppenheimer has flatly refused
to discuss his company's affairs with the Northern Miner, Platt's Metals
Week, and Stockwatch. States a Platt's report from April 20: "Efforts to
interview Crystallex's executives for this article were largely futile.
They dodged a Platt's editor at a recent investment conference in Miami and
declined to meet with the Platt's correspondent in Vancouver."
Ms. Atkinson, despite her stalwart support of Crystallex, appears to be
concerned about the elusive Mr. Oppenheimer. "I would say he's very hard to
get hold of and he doesn't return calls," she says. "That doesn't make any
of us feel good."
(c) Copyright 1998 Canjex Publishing Ltd. canada-stockwatch.com
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