For example, remember the ancient maxim: Bulls make money, bears make money, but pigs never do? The new, improved version is: Bulls make money, bears make money, but pigs make more money than anyone.
A few more maxims come to mind in the following item. Wonder if this makes the Grimy Reaper (remember that moron that used to post on the MU thread until (s)he bet long on Bre-X pending results of the independent assays?) feel any better?
Regards, DWW
P.S. Don't report me to the copyright police. -vbg-
c
The prospector in his office in 1996
DAVID WALSH
David Walsh, mining promoter, died in the Bahamas on
June 4 aged 52, after suffering a stroke. He was born on
August 11, 1945.
Not all that tempts your wand'ring eyes
And heedless hearts, is lawful prize;
Nor all that glisters, gold . . .
. . . but Thomas Gray's words tend to be forgotten when
fortunes are said to be there for the digging. In a just a few
years international speculators sank more than œ3 billion into
the mining company Bre-X Minerals before a report in May
1997 into what was supposed to be the world's biggest
goldmine declared that there were, after all, only insignificant
deposits, not worth mining. The company lost 80 per cent of
its value in half-an-hour.
The entrepreneur David Walsh, however, had previously sold
some œ22 million of shares, putting the money into overseas
accounts and establishing himself in a beachfront house in the
Bahamas with his wife, Jeanette. So for all his protestations
he was perhaps not quite so horrified as others by the news.
"We share the shock and dismay of our shareholders and
others that the gold we thought we had at Busang now
appears not to be there," he said at the time, as though it had
been mislaid. But Walsh, claiming to be the dupe of others in
his company, was apparently distressed about his reputation,
and anxious to clear his name. He also received death threats.
His partner and head of exploration, the Dutch geologist John
Felderhof, speaking from his home in the Cayman Islands,
was also adamant about his innocence, though he had been
instrumental in securing the Busang concession and is said to
have made at least C$42 million (œ17.5 million) by selling
shares. He later left the company.
David Walsh was born in Montreal, the son of a stockbroker
with interests in mining. He was educated at Westmount High
School but devoted himself to fast living on motorbikes and in
sports cars.
He dabbled unsuccessfully in the oil and gas industries before
creating Bre-X Minerals in 1989, hoping to find gold or
diamonds in Canada. By 1992 his exploration efforts had all
failed, and he and his wife declared themselves bankrupt,
clearing away almost C$60,000 of credit card debt.
Nevertheless, he scraped together another C$10,000 to start
exploring in Indonesia, and persuaded friends to invest
C$200,000 for a licence to prospect for gold in the East
Kalimantan province. Explorations began in the rainforests of
Busang on the island of Borneo in 1993.
Who was behind what became known as the golden fleece is
the subject of criminal investigations, but the method is clear.
The core samples taken by Bre-X were kept in a warehouse
before being sent to the assayer, and it is believed that a
laboratory was set up on the banks of the river from Busang
to Samarinda so that the samples could be "salted" with gold
dust from elsewhere.
An expert from the mining analysts Strathcona later declared
that the tampering was on a scale "without precedent in the
history of mining anywhere in the world".
After the supposed find at Busang, the penny shares in
Calgary-based Bre-X soared. The Indonesian Government
moved in to claim a stake, and mining companies clamoured
for the chance to participate.
David Walsh's swashbuckling confidence was the key to his
rollercoaster business life. An unbuttoned, beer-swilling,
chain-smoking self-promoter who liked the good life, he did
many of his deals in restaurants and visited Busang only once.
Meanwhile, Bre-X officials touted the company's putative
deposits as the find of the century, claiming to have struck a
"mountain of gold" 12km long and 6km wide.
Speculation from the falsified results suggested that there
might be up to 200 million ounces of gold, and when Bre-X
shares were first listed on the Toronto stock exchange, the
price is said to have risen from C$5 to C$192.50 within five
minutes.
The bad news for Bre-X investors began on March 19 last
year, when the company's man on the ground, Mike De
Guzman, unwisely became its man in the air. While flying by
helicopter to meet geologists from the company's potential
partner, Freeport-McMoRan, he mysteriously fell to his death.
The local police initially said it was suicide, and claimed to find
a suicide note on the body when it was recovered two months
later, but they subsequently began a murder inquiry.
Then, on March 23, Freeport-McMoRan broke the news that
there was no gold, and C$500 million was wiped off the value
of the company. The volume of trading brought down the
Toronto computer system. The whole Canadian market took
its hardest knock for a decade.
Eight lawsuits were filed against Walsh and John Felderhof,
accusing them of profiting illegally from share sales while
aware that they might have little value. The Ontario Securities
Commission began an investigation.
The Walshes' assets were frozen last month, the court
granting them an allowance of C$3,000 a week and ordering
them to disclose all their assets worldwide.
David Walsh is survived by his wife and their son.
Next page: Professor Peter Jewell, biologist and
conservationist
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