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

To: DeplorableIrredeemableRedneck who wrote (93044)	1/30/2003 9:09:22 AM
From: DeplorableIrredeemableRedneck	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116813

Barrick launches countersuit against Blanchard POSTED AT 1:57 PM EST Wednesday, January 29 Canadian Press Barrick Gold Corp. has begun a libel suit against a U.S. coin dealer that has sued Canada's largest gold producer and J.P. Morgan Chase, accusing them of conspiring to manipulate gold prices. Barrick said Wednesday it has served a formal libel notice on Blanchard and Co. Inc. and its chief executive Donald Doyle Jr. for "a series of false and defamatory statements Blanchard and Doyle have published since mid-December 2002 concerning Barrick." Blanchard launched a lawsuit in mid-December, saying that hedging programs used by Barrick and other gold companies to cushion themselves against falling prices hurt the gold market by keeping prices low. The hedging practices that Blanchard and Co., the plaintive in the suit against Barrick and J.P. Morgan Chase, allege is illegal have been common practice in the financial markets for years. Blanchard alleges that financing from J.P. Morgan to Barrick allowed the gold company to short-sell bullion and still make a profit on prices so low that other gold producers were unprofitable or pushed out of business. Barrick has denied any wrongdoing. "Blanchard has made statements that have no basis in fact and are totally irresponsible and defamatory," Barrick president and chief executive Randall Oliphant, said in a release Wednesday. "We value our good name, and we are simply not prepared to tolerate the dissemination of false statements concerning Barrick that are harmful to our reputation, business interests and stakeholders — Blanchard, Doyle or others." Mr. Oliphant said Barrick plans to seek "substantial damages and other relief against those responsible for the false statements." Barrick's libel notice Wednesday is the first step in the beginning of legal proceedings for defamation in Canada.