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Gold/Mining/Energy : Gold Price Monitor -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IngotWeTrust who wrote (44300)	10/29/1999 11:01:00 AM
From: Enigma	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116756

Well - I saw one word on that Butler piece - 'fraud' - heavy stuff! I have noticed that he is carrying on a vendetta against Barrick - and it is my impression from reading his material that he doesn't understand Barrick's programme any more than the average Joe - yet he launches into these diatrades against Barrick! So I wonder what his agenda is? Now, the problem Barrick has is that it's programme is difficult to understand, contains 'trade secrets', in a sense which has given it a competetive edge, and is thus difficult to explain. It creates a PR problem too. When I was in the gold mining business we didn't have these exotic programmes - so disclosure was not an issue - we did a bit of hedging with mixed results - you have to remember that gold soared to over $800 at this time - so we had to contend with a Board of Directors who kept changing their minds! I don't know what audit problems it poses now - whether for those companies who actually have a problem - Ashanti and Cambior for example - the auditors actually disclosed the potential risk to shareholders. But I can see that it does pose an issue for auditors. But having said all this - there is a lot of loose talk about hedgers, Barrick in particular - and I for one hope the someone calls Butlers's bluff and sues him! Or maybe that's just what he wants? The laws of slander and libel are very broad in the States and 'freedom of expression' lets people write and say almost anything they damn well want. d