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Gold/Mining/Energy : Crystallex (KRY) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Barracuda™ who wrote (4766)	2/7/1998 12:09:00 PM
From: Joe Bilich	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 10836

OK--I'll try a synopsis of the last couple weeks. Start with what we KNOW. Obviously the first thing--the stock has essentially doubled from 3.25 $US and has moved to new highs on solid volume. From a technical perspective KRY is now through the tops of March and July. The market's perception of this situation has changed significantly of late. We KNOW that Placer did two things in late January. They issued a statement indicating they were suspending work at LC pending the Supreme Court decision, implying that they could not justify further expense and further implying that they were unable to get financing until a decision came down anyway. This is a significant departure from their prior public posture of "we have clear title, this court thing is just a nuisance". There are reports that they had little current activity anyway, and that they got into shouting matches with Venezuelan officials and may have burned their bridges. We KNOW that Placer also put out a news release that essentially recapped their global operations. You can find it by doing a news search under PDG or KRY. Basically, this was a letter to the financial community saying "look at us, we are big, we are strong, we have all these great operations around the globe". What was significant were two things they didn't say: they did not mention Venezuela or Las Cristinas at all, and the reserve figure they published seems to have excluded their (former?) 70% share of Las Cristinas. I found that news release to be extremely compelling. Like many others, I saw this a "damage control in advance". We also know there is or was a large short position on KRY--some say up to 3MM shares. What we don't know is to what degree these shorts have been covered. There are suggestions that some of the buying volume of late was coming from Venezuela, because of leaks among officials there. I do not know if this is true or not, but to the extent it is it would suggest a favorable outcome for KRY, and that the short position has not been significantly covered as yet. We KNOW that Bob Bishop and other prominent newsletter writers have reiterated their confidence in KRY. What you make of that depends of course on your perspective. :) We know that KRY officials altered their schedules to get their butts to Caracas in a hurry. Finally, we do KNOW that Marc Oppenheimer of KRY has been engaged in discussions with the MEM per a KRY news release. We do not know the substance of these discussions, but it seems pretty reasonable to assume that not much discussion would be required if KRY were gonna lose! Now--for what we don't KNOW, but have heard: Reports from Venezuela (posted here and on Stockhouse--you can choose whether to believe them or not) suggest possible content or outcomes for the discussions between KRY and Venezuelan officials (these would be MEM or other executive branch officials as opposed to the Supreme Court). I personally believe that these discussions are substantive and deal with the framework for expanded mining development at LC, job creation and improving the local infrastructure, and structuring something that looks like a win-win deal for both company and country. The reports further suggest that maybe CVG will be booted out, or somehow come to a realization that the court was going to rule against them and embarass them (ending the careers of any officials on the wrong side of this). These suggestions further imply that if CVG were to rescind their decrees, there would be no need to have a court ruling to confirm KRY's ownership of LC 4&6. This is plausible but unsubstantiated at this point. I could elaborate all the hypotheses and rumors floating around, but why tire my fingers with the typing? Just read the posts here and on Stockhouse. :) Hopefully that is a pretty factual and not too breathless account of the last two weeks.

To: The Barracuda™ who wrote (4766)	2/7/1998 12:36:00 PM
From: Joe Bilich	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10836

One more thing we KNOW-- As has been noted, our thread has recently been "graced" by another round of fear-mongering. Whether these posters are tied to PDG, or to major short positions, is a matter of speculation. Charred, like him or not, at least has in fact posted constructively on other threads in the past. Viper is a newbie, at least under that name, and has suddenly appeared seemingly on a mission to sow fear and doubt on this thread. We have seen this over and over again--transparent attempts to shake out weak holders. Further, Roy Carson has had Email messages blocked and interruption of his ISP service. Again, one can only speculate on the reasons and the timing. Could be to inhibit communications for the "opposition", could be revenge, could of course just be coincidence. I am not suggesting that only positive views be accepted or encouraged here. I am observing that we tend to get these bouts of fear-mongering when someone wants to either move the stock or inhibit exchange of information through anything but traditional, controlled media (where established parties can exert far greater control over the content, timing, distribution, and spin).