Folks I have been in PR for this past year and in the USA -on April 6th 1999 there was a new SEC Disclosure rule. I am wonderring( if maybe the 30 new rules in Mining that the Old ASE came up with after the terrible loss on our portifilios < yes, even now it still shows up on my books-account summary> of that Indo Gold Compant that should be remained nameless, faceless and sheetless as they did the ONE most terrible thing....undisclosed PR may HAVE ( I have no clue) come about with 5the new combination of Exchanges on the CDNX. Any imput, I still like MMU and am LONG. I intend to be long in more Alberta /BC/Sash/Man located companies- as to Quebec- that was a stock dividend, LOL; here! Maybe, just maybe there is a new Exchange Rule on Message Board Posting ( ie for free Shares/ Warrants/Options ). If Jesse was one of those in receipt- I just don't rememember asking and or reading the subject, as for him not disclosing, even though there may of been no specific law untill some future that may be intended to be interruptated IN THE FUTURE. I just think that Jesse was A-1, it would be best if he had disclosed on the facts < again it may not BE any of our Business in Todays World of Yesterday befor April 6th> but then again, this has left a stink that is NOT WARRANTED I do hope that the CDNX date of 11-29-1999 merger is merely the reason for a change in promotional PR if it is at all as Jesse and Rick really performed well in Communications, it was the POG falling( The Push and Shove Guy- Avergaejoeguy is part right- await a NEW PUSH, don't let it get to you!) that made such a low down price, I guess; Jesse could of merely said goodbye. ( Or he may have a Medical Condition- ie 4 weeks ago my life changed with a bit of goodluck from badluck we are happy <ier> now < the wife got hit by a car with 5 cracked ribs on a walking dark nite 90% of the way across the street.)So, if Jesse is that way, hope ya make some more Happy Trails here!
See my S.I. Personal Profile for a SEC Disclosure LOW on the thing just above the posts.
Chucka
FROM the NM Editor - Note POST ERA changes, "Tamper Proof Sample Bags...etc etc "
RE:
cgi.canoe.ca
Saturday, May 10, 1997
Don't let Bre-X tarnish Canada's mining industry
Finding, developing and operating mines is something we do better than anyone else and the track record is there to prove it
By VIVIAN DANIELSON
For The Financial Post
Bre-X Minerals Ltd., the former toast of Bay Street, defied many of nature's laws when it conjured up "the world's largest gold deposit" in the jungles of Borneo. But Mother Nature cannot be fooled for long, and the deposit built on invalid samples collapsed like a house of cards earlier this week when Strathcona Mineral Services reported that preliminary results from its six-hole audit drilling program bore no resemblance to Bre-X's previously announced results.
As Bre-X's Busang wends its way into history as the gold scam of the century, securities regulators and industry organizations are being bombarded with questions from bewildered and angry shareholders.The Bre-X fiasco was a bombshell for the Toronto Stock Exchange and its member firms, which were enjoying some of their best years ever as junior companies flocked there to tap into the large pool of capital available for mineral investment.
Canada, and Toronto in particular, is known around the world as the place to raise capital for exploration and mineral development, as well as the chief source of mining talent and technology.
Almost every country in the world seeking foreign investment sent a delegation to the mining convention of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada in Toronto last March. They came because they had been told that finding, developing and operating mines is something Canadians do better than almost anyone else. And the track record is there to prove it.
Canadian juniors have made some impressive discoveries in the past few decades. The list includes the rich Hemlo gold deposits of north-central Ontario, the spectacular Eskay Creek gold discovery in northern British Columbia, diamond deposits in Canada's North and, most recently, the Voisey's Bay nickel-copper-cobalt deposit in Labrador.
The achievements of Canadian juniors abroad are equally noteworthy and include Arequipa's Pierina gold deposit in Peru, the Bulyanhulu gold find in Tanzania and a host of new copper and copper-gold discoveries in northern Chile.
Bre-X's "find" in Borneo, having gone from boom to bust, no longer makes the list. It will haunt Canadian juniors for some time to come, though there will be positive effects too.
The expectation threshold will be lowered, and a one-million-ounce gold deposit will become respectable again. The overall flight to quality will benefit solid companies with good prospects and good management at the expense of their more heavily promoted, but less substantive, counterparts.
Even so, investors will be seeking reforms, as well as possible compensation for losses, related to the Bre-X fiasco. Regulators may be tempted to clamp down on junior companies, as they did in the wake of the Windfall trading scandal of the 1960s. By the following decade, when the dust had settled on Windfall, junior companies had gone the way of the dinosaur in Toronto.
Senior mining executives lamented the disappearance of the traditional prospector and junior mining company, as well as the dearth of discoveries. Industry organizations complained at the time that the Ontario Securities Commission's "protective attitudes ... have all but eliminated the raising of risk capital for exploration."
Ontario's loss quickly became British Columbia's gain. Promoters and prospectors swarmed to the Vancouver Stock Exchange, which, despite a number of well-publicized scams, began to develop a vibrant junior mining sector. Toronto had to take a back seat to Vancouver, where the companies responsible for Hemlo, Eskay Creek, Voisey's Bay, Pierina, and diamonds in the Northwest Territories all got their start.
In recent years, however, Toronto has regained ground, as mature junior companies "graduated" and sought listings on the more established eastern market.
Toronto has attractions other than respectability, in particular its large pool of investment capital, much of which is derived from pension funds that are swelling as aging baby boomers sock away dollars for their retirement years.
With interest rates low, competitive fund managers have been chasing opportunities that provide potential for spectacular gains. Junior mining issues, which might never have seen the light of day on Bay Street a decade ago, fit that bill, so it is little wonder they have found their way into investment portfolios and mutual funds. Which, in a nutshell, is how and why Bre-X made its daring climb up the credibility curve onto Bay Street and the TSE 300.
In the wake of the Bre-X fiasco, most industry experts agree that junior companies will find it more difficult to raise capital on Bay Street. The risk-adverse pension funds are likely to lead the flight to more proven and tangible investments. Brokerage firms, already under fire for their role in the Bre-X imbroglio, will probably pull in their horns and stick to the traditional blue-chips, at least for the short term.
It is important, however, that cool heads prevail in the coming weeks and months so Bre-X does not put an end to Toronto's emergence as a world centre for mineral investment, nor quash its junior mining sector.
Rules and regulations may have to be tightened and reforms introduced to increase investor protection. These do not have to be costly or time-consuming.
A number of reforms were in the works before Bre-X went bust. A proposal for tamper-proof sample bags, which would cost only pennies more than those currently in use, has been put forward by an analytical firm. For the past year or so, a committee from the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy has been developing guidelines for the reporting of reserves and resources that take into account rules used in Australia. The analytical community has an initiative under way aimed at convincing regulators across North America to set guidelines on the use of assay laboratories and assay methods.
The task force set up in the wake of the Bre-X fiasco by the TSE and the OSC will examine the overall need to set standards on how exploration programs should be carried out, and the results reported and disclosed. Industry experts predict the primary focus will be on the need for independent audits of drill results and resource calculations, at least for junior companies.
Others will argue that more rules and regulations are not as necessary as better enforcement of those already in place. This may require the TSE to beef up its market surveillance department and perhaps bring in mining professionals to vet prospectuses and new listings. The OSC, as senior regulator, also may have to strengthen its investigative and enforcement teams. The fallout from Bre-X has already revived the call for a national securities commission.
Bre-X was an aberration that should not be allowed to stain the reputation and remarkable track record of Canada's mining industry at home and abroad.
Mining helped build this nation and still contributes much to our prosperity. As Barrick Gold chairman Peter Munk aptly noted at his company's recent annual meeting, "no single rogue operator ... no single deviant member can change those fundamentals."
Vivian Danielson is editor of The Northern Miner.
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