For all IPM stockholders:
Please see below this letter which I am hopeful will be sent out to NASDAQ as well as Senators and representatives. Perhaps it should be sent to the chairman of the House Banking Committee as they may be responsible for the SEC activity.
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David A. Donohoe, Jr.
Counsel
NASDAQ
1735 K. Street, NW
Washington, DC 0006-1500
Dear Mr. Donohoe,
Re: International Precious Metals
Dear Mr. Donahoe,
I am writing to let you know I am very unhappy that the NASDAQ has chosen to
delist the shares of International Precious Metals (IPM) from trading on the
SmallCap market. While I am sure you acted in good faith in carrying out the
tasks you have been hired to do, the actions of NASDAQ were financially
injurious to other shareholders and me. Moreover, your actions may have
unwittingly eliminated an untold number of future jobs for miners in the state
of Arizona.
Emotions have run deep with regard to the so-called desert sands mining
properties. As far as IPM is concerned, they have been stirred up by a man
named Mason Coggins of the Arizona Department of Mines. Mr. Coggins has had
such a personnel vendetta against IPM, that he has gone on national TV,
disguised his identify on the Internet (as Desert Fox) and has done all he can
behind the scenes to put this company and its shareholders to death. It seems
as though Mr. Coggins has staked his professional reputation on his premise
that there is no gold on the IPM property in Arizona. While Mr. Coggins may
believe that statement with all his heart, that belief is about as unfounded
as believing the earth is flat or that man in fact never landed on the moon.
There is indeed an enormous body of evidence not only proving that gold exists
at Black Rock, but that it also exists in quantities and grades that may be
highly commercial. While profitability of Black cannot be guaranteed, that is
also true of virtually all other mine exploration projects at early stages of
development. So if that is the basis for delisting IPM, then you have many
more companies to delist. Mining, and especially eploration companies
represent high risk/high return propositions. I understood that when I
purchased my shares of International Precious metals. What I was not aware of
was the fact that political risks stemming from a civil "servant" in Arizona,
would spell political risks the likes of which were previously thought to
exist only in dictatorships.
What evidence is there to suggest Black Rock is a viable exploration project?
The most concrete and compelling evidence is the verification of 50 million
tons of material by Behre Dolbear grading 0.046-oz. gold/ton, with
mineralization open at depth and in every direction. This means that there
could be hundreds of millions of tons of material of a similar grade. If you
investigate the mining industry, you will realize that open pit mines (which
is what Black Rock would be) are often enormously profitable with this grade
of gold, especially if those projects are located in ares of little or no
infrastructure concern as is true with Black Rock. Moreover, the potential
economics is enhanced greatly by the prospects of platinum production from
Black Rock. Although Behre Dolbear would not confirm the platinum content of
this property (0.09 oz./ton - I believe for political reasons related to
keeping its existing clients), it did note reports of the existence of
platinum recovered through the same chloride leach process as was used to
recover 0.046 oz. gold/ton. Thus, the ultimate values here could be akin to
0.136 which would ad enormous potential value to this project.
Whether or not Black Rock ultimately becomes an economic orebody will depend
most notably on the cost of recovery. Mining is a cheap as it gets. Mining
there would be about as cheap as it gets-particularly when the available
infrastructure of the property is considered. This leads to the logical
conclusion that, thre is at least as much reason to think that solid economics
could be achieved, as there is reason to project that they might not.
Accordingly, this project could be enormously profitable to the company and
its shareholders, and I believe IPM deserves the opportunity to prove their
case. The potential of this project should be evident to any knowledgeable
investor willing to look at the facts rather than simply uttering conventional
wisdom the likes of which have come from the Arizona Department of Mines such
as "no gold exists at Black Rock". Or, "there can't be any platinum in
Arizona because non was ever found there before". Please bear in mind that Mr.
Coggins, who has compared people who believe in Black Rock to those who
comitted suicide so as to "hitch a ride on the coment", has never once taken a
serious look at the data confirmed by Behre Dolbear. What you should be aware
of is the fact that banks will go to Behre Dolbear (not Mason Coggins) to
confirm the existence of gold deposits before they will disburse funding for
project construction. In case you are not aware, here is what Behre Dolbear
said with regard to the process that confirmed the existence of 50 million
tons of material grading 0.046 oz. gold/ton at 's Black Rock property.
Behre Dolbear has been engaged in an ongoing program to aid in a precious
metals evaluation of the Black Rock project. On site observation of the
drilling program, including the collection, handling, and security of the
samples was completed. Additionally, Behre Dolbear observed and monitored 's
sample preparation laboratory to verify that sample preparation and treatment
procedures consistently followed previously established accepted methodology.
All of the above was subject to close scrutiny and given Behre Dolbear's
approval.
It is evident that is executing a well-planned program. Behre Dolbear notes no
shortcomings in equipment, operating procedures, or security measures in
either phase of their program. Both the sample preparation and laboratory and
personnel are well trained and supervised.
The analytical results of approximately 103 samples submitted to two
independent and industry-recognized laboratories were made available to Behre
Dolbear. On the basis of the currently available analysis, it is concluded
that the -developed leaching procedure is extracting measurable amounts of
gold from Black Rock material. This has been verified by correlation of the
analytical results from the two independent laboratories.
Behre Dolbear noted with interest that other precious metals values including
PGM's were reported by the laboratories. Behre Dolbear however, has not
evaluated the significance of these other precious metal values and recommends
further study on the part of.
Since this report from Behre Dolbear was written, the company has now devised
a fire assay process that has also confirmed the presence of gold at Black
Rock in quantities that are often economic. Two mine-engineering companies,
namely Behre Dolbear and Bateman Engineering have confirmed and signed off on
this. The grades, which ranged in the 0.02 oz. gold/ton to 0.07 oz. gold/ton
range are, as you must be aware, also in the range of economic viability for
open pit mines located in an areas with virtually no infrastructure concerns.
I purchased my shares to a great extent because of the potential viability of
Black Rock becoming a mine and perhaps a world class deposit because one of
the best mine engineering firms gave me reason to believe in this deposit's
potential. No information has yet been made public to give us any reason to
doubt the legitimacy of that report, unless you have some knowledge you have
not shared with the public. Should we perhaps seek recourse against Behre
Dolbear for misleading us? Do you think they misled us? Were they not acting
in good faith when they wrote their report to IPM? Have you thought about
seeking action against them? Unless there is something like this that has
not come out in public, then we can only believe that NASDAQ has caused
financial damage to IPM shareholders. Why NASDAQ do what it has done when it
has been so injurous to me? Who do you really serve?
I recognize that the management of IPM in perhaps painting an overly
optimistic picture of the future of this company when they talked about grades
of 0.60 oz. gold equivilant per ton. In fact the established grade of 0.046
oz./ton gold may be all that is needed to make this a very attractive economic
project. Yet, what was the management of IPM to do when their internal work
pointed to higher numbers? Is it not their responsibility to get such
information out to the market? What would have been the consequences if the
independent results were accurage but-had not been disclosed? Moreover, the
company continuously advised in its news that the results were developed in
association with other research, testing or refining facilities, that they
were internal and that an audited third party verification was required. Yes,
in retrospect, you may have some reason to critiscize this company for
spending too much money on frivolity. But I think it is hard to fault
management for reporting what it belived to be true when it reported other
numbers. But even if you disagree with me on this, is this a reason to
further injure me as a shareholder when Black Rock remains a viable
exploration project based on the known grade of 0.046 oz. gold/ton?
It appears obvious to me that NASDAQ has been used as an implement against
current and future IPM shareholders by the narrow interest of one man at the
Arizona Department of Mines and possible by a few short sellers who used you
to rig the markets aginst the long positions. There is a body of evidence that
clearly supports this contention, and it is very likely you received
communications from these groups as well. A writer of Bloomberg is especially
suspect in his misrepresentation of the company and its interests. These are
people who have selfishly used their power to influence you and to injure us
little people for whom your actions led to sizeable financial loss.
Rightfully, your institution should be held accountable for that. I should
think that if the actions of NASDAQ are an indication of where our free
enterprise system is headed, we have little to look forward to in America. The
actions carried out by NASDAQ well intended as they may have been, fit more
closely with the economic model of fascism than free market capitalism.
I am writing this letter to plead with you to re-instate IPM for NASDAQ
SmallCap Market. Because of legal arrangements, I understand we do not have
recourse in the courts against NASDAQ for the injuries your organization
caused me and other shareholders. So we are at your mercy. We appeal to you
to do what is right rather than what may be dictated to you by the strong and
powerful. You apparently chose to take the easy way out rather than
objectively face the truth as it concerns IPM and Black Rock. Otherwise, I
cannot see how you could have delisted the company in light of so much
compelling evidence this is a legitimate project? NASDAQ must have another
agenda other than the good of current and future shareholders, because not
only are your actions unexplained as dictatorships where people simply
disappear without explanation. Your actions have in fact led to a plummeting
share price and which in turn now leads to the doubt of the very survival of
IPM. Don't you care about us? Is this what you want? If so, why? Who are you
really serving?
I will watch to see how you treat IPM in the future. In the mean time, I am
providing a copy of this letter to my U.S. Congressman and both Senators in my
state, so they become aware of how badly the actions of NASDAQ needlessly
caused me and many other IPM shareholders.
Sincerely,
Signature
CC: Congressman
Senators
Perhaps a short cover letter to congressmen calling attention to the attached
would be good. People can do this in their own one or two sentence statement. |
