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Gold/Mining/Energy : Maxam Gold Corp. OBB:MXAM -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bruce McGaughey who wrote (3163)	11/27/1997 2:32:00 PM
From: Larry Brubaker	Respond to of 11603

Bruce: To my knowledge, Doyle has no involvement in Uranco, Phoenix, or Omega. These all seem to be private companies in which Runyon is one of the principal shareholders. It also would seem like Runyon has done a pretty good job of assuring himself a decent payoff, regardless whether IPM or Maxam ever earn a profit. My guess is it works something like this. Runyon, backed by other investors went out and staked desert claims that are held by the private companies, Phoenix, Omega, and Uranco. Some of these claims are sold to public companies like IPM and Maxam (notice that Runyon's public company, Maxam, got much more favorable terms--Maxam's payment to Uranco was warrants of Maxam stock--than were given to IPM--$17 million cash, of which more than $500,000 has been paid--plus $1 million shares of IPM stock). The publically traded companies can raise money in the capital markets to pay for the claims purchased from the private comapanies. So, we know Phoenix/Omega has received a $500,000+ payoff from IPM, plus 1 million shares in May that they could have sold at any time since, plus another 6 million+ shares that they could be selling as of October 15. Therefore, the shareholders in Phoenix/Omega will be able to pocket this payoff regardless of whether IPM or Phoenix ultimately prove successful. They also have warrants of Maxam stock. Thall's "follow the money" exhortation is certainly worth thinking about. We know the investors in Phoenix/Omega/Uranco have $500,000+ in cash and a great deal of IPM and Maxam paper which would make a pretty good payoff if all of this is a scam. It is certainly food for thought for investors in Maxam and Phoenix. Of course, the fact that Runyon and whoever his co-investors are in Phoenix/Omega/Uranco would have been able to profit in the event that IPM/Maxam are a scam does not mean they are, either. The structure of these companies would also be a perfectly rational way to structure a legitimate business. Runyon and the earliest investors were the ones who invested their time, efforts and money with the vision of recovering precious metals from the desert. It only stands to reason that these companies would be structured so that the original investors are the first to receive a payoff.

To: Bruce McGaughey who wrote (3163)	11/27/1997 4:07:00 PM
From: GlobalMarine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 11603

Bruce: I'm not concerned about the private companies involved, provided the consideration is less than what the capitalized value of the PMs are. Dale Runyon has been hunting around for these desert dirt deposits longer than anyone else, and he naturally had to start out with a private company to stake or acquire the claims and raise funds to pay for them. Now that it appears viable to mine them, the claims are gradually being transferred to public companies to: 1) Raise funds for development; and 2) Capitalize the value of the properties and future earnings by drilling, fire assaying, calculating p and p reserves, and going into production. The majors haven't staked DD land because they don't yet believe that PMs exist in such settings. But when Maxam goes into production and Naxos proves out the existence of massive grades of PMs at Franklin Lake, the tide will change and everyone will pour into the desert.