Here we see the reaction of Birch, seems balanced and fair now: I would of said harder things, I will sleep on it and still, might:
I will say this: "BIG PAYOFF.com STILL bigger than the average. Buying OP."
Remember, Stockwatch had stated last month about Message Board Postings by Internet Hypsters, soon we see the Engineering I suspect that since last year we await Strathcona, I can wait some more.
Chucka-Internet Hypster/CIH today, last week I formed a PR Doing Business As called CPR- Chucka Publ;ic Relations...methinks I should call a code GREEN, BMD/BHMNF is a bargain now. IMHO- that is FreePR.
Birch Mountain Resources Ltd - Birch Mountain contests hair-raising comments
Birch Mountain Resources Ltd BMD
Shares issued 27,777,790 2000-01-17 close $2.38
Monday Jan 17 2000
"STOCKHOLDERS WERE FREAKING, PEOPLE WERE SELLING," OFFICER COMPLAINS
by Stockwatch Business Reporter
A Birch Mountain investor relations officer says Stockwatch on Friday misconstrued comments from letter writer John Kaiser about the company and its "Prairie gold" theory. Jane Quinn says that as a result, Birch Mountain's price plunged and the company's Calgary office was deluged with hundreds of calls from shareholders worried about criticism from the influential California-based stock tipster. Birch Mountain ended Friday at $2.40, down 44 cents.
"The report that Kaiser wrote about us we found quite positive, but it was turned around and it created just chaos here on Friday afternoon," Ms. Quinn says, referring to Stockwatch's In the News item on Mr. Kaiser's report in his Bottom-Fishing Action Weekly Review of Jan. 3-7. At issue was the treatment of the theory as developed by vice-president of exploration, Hugh Abercrombie.
What Mr. Kaiser wrote, which was acceptable to Birch Mountain, was, "What did not impress me was the stock's mysterious rise in 1999 without any new fundamental developments, and the fact that Hugh Abercrombie was willing to describe esoteric scientific theories that make your hair stand on end, but only on an off-the-record basis."
What led to the chaos, according to Ms. Quinn, was Stockwatch's In the News item. It read, "Mr. Kaiser says he was not impressed with the stock's mysterious gains during the year, or with Hugh Abercrombie's insistence that his hair-raising scientific theories only be discussed off the record."
Ms. Quinn says the Stockwatch version was an insult and "completely different" from Mr. Kaiser's original meaning. "Stockholders were freaking, people were selling," she complains. "Unfortunately, you just plucked the negative stuff out and none of the positive. We spent years and millions and millions of dollars on this project." Investors were were worried that scientific studies "were being discussed off the record without their knowledge," Ms. Quinn complains. "Like that sounds really crazy to a stockholder. Hair-raising scientific theories? They're thinking, 'Oh my god, what are they doing over there?'"
Birch Mountain turned out to be Mr. Kaiser's top pick for 1999, having recommended it in December, 1998, at 30 cents. It closed the year at $2.10 for a gain of 579 per cent; his portfolio of 100 stocks ended with a gain of 21.64 per cent. The Jan. 3-7 item was his only comment on his top performer in 1999. Prairie gold is the company's unorthodox model of precious metals in sedimentary formations where such metals are not believed common. Its focus is northeastern Alberta.
While Mr. Kaiser was unimpressed with Birch Mountain's advances without the benefit of stock-moving news during the year, Ms. Quinn did little to explain why it did so well in 1999. "The press releases we have sent and our reports have kept our stockholders up to date on our progress," she says, adding that Strathcona Minerals also became involved in the Prairie gold story last year.
Asked which, if any, analysts are following Birch Mountain, Ms. Quinn said there was Jay Taylor, editor of the Gold and Technology Stocks newsletter, and Yorkton Securities' Art Ettlinger. In February, 1998, Mr. Ettlinger recommended Birch Mountain a buy based on its diamond-hunting activities in the Buffalo Head region of Northern Alberta. He did not mention Prairie gold. Ms. Quinn says Mr. Ettlinger drops by the office from time to time to discuss the company's activities with management. He has not made a subsequent recommendation on Birch Mountain, nor does he have a public opinion about Prairie gold.
(Mr. Kaiser, however, offered his thoughts on Mr. Taylor in his Bottom-Fish Review. "Even less impressive was the adoption of Birch Mountain by desert dirt lovers such as Jay Taylor," he said, adding that the stock has developed a cult following "which some insiders have fuelled with that old promotional standby 'If you only knew what we know.'")
"It's hard for an analyst to really follow us because we can't be promotional or anything regarding this stock because it's so controversial," Ms. Quinn says. When it was pointed out to her that some would see comments in the company's most recent annual report as being promotional, the IR person denied they were. "No, they're all public information. Everything that's in the annual report is public information," she says. "But we also of course make reference to forward-looking statements, as well. We try to keep stockholders as well informed as we can without coming off as sounding promotional. We don't want to hype our stock, that's the thing. We cannot hype the stock because we're going to have to have hard facts to back up an inflated price, and we don't have those yet.
"There are plenty of people out there who think we should (hype the stock) because we could easily make forward-looking statements that could push the stock up to five bucks, easily. But we're not going to do that," Ms. Quinn says.
Asked why Dr. Abercrombie is unwilling to discuss Prairie gold on the record, Ms. Quinn says that such a move would inflate the price. "It would be too forward-looking. I know that you're finding this very elusive, but it's just very controversial." Ms. Quinn contends that explaining the such a theory in public could "scare people off. People take things all different ways. That's why we're trying to be very careful with this project."
She says if Dr. Abercrombie spoke on the record it would be construed as hype. "If he was going to disclose a scientific theory, then he would write a paper and it would go to stockholders, which is why we keep it off the record," she argues. "We don't want to do that right now, not without hard facts to back up this stuff." Ms. Quinn says one of the company's priorities is to minimize speculation about Prairie gold, and in this manner keep a lid on its share price.
"We're more interested in this project than we are in the stock price," she says.
canada-stockwatch.com
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