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

To: jlmac who wrote (9454)	7/22/1998 10:19:00 AM
From: Jerry Collins	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 10836

jlmac -- Thanks for the thoughts. My history is quite a bit shorter (no pun there) than yours. I didn't know anything of the Crystallex story until Manuel Asensio brought out his statements in early March. I found this guy fascinating, someone who would go so far out on a limb with his condemnations of a company, and he has this great Bronx accent. It all seemed a little hard to believe, so I checked out both him and the Crystallex story, and that's how I got into it. The turning point for his credibility in my estimation was seeing him quoted as a leading short-seller in Fortune magazine, and then a New York Times feature (he didn't like that profile and complained he was set up by the reporter, BTW). I recall him telling me that Crystallex has no case, which I found hard to believe because they had this action in front of the supreme court, and the orthodoxy at that time was that it was the "fourth and final," etc. In any event, his version of events, in the end, wasn't that far off the mark. My ears perked up when KRY issued a flaccid statement of denial (and a libel suit, which it failed to follow through with). Chairman Bob Fung's best response was that Mr Asensio was a "notorious short seller." So what? In fact, good for him! Shorts have to live and die with the market -- and many get burned. So the fact he was successful at what he did was no shame in my estimation. It's funny how the legitimate function of short selling (which helps maintain liquidity in markets) is viewed as something, well, almost inhuman; go figure. I did, however, notice that Mr Asensio did get a little carried away in some respects. I won't site specifics, but overall, I was impressed with the quality of his arguments. He said the stock would be at 50 cents by May '98, and it wasn't, but he wasn't fundamentally wrong, either. Overall, I'd say Mr Asensio was, in the end, more accurate with his "down" hype than Roy Carson was with his "up" hype, IMO. Here's what Mr Carson had to say three weeks before Mr Asensio began his attacks. No mention of the $23 a share "offer", but he is certainly hinting at it. . Carson says Bush not in Caracas Crystallex International Corporation KRY Shares issued 34,000,000 1998-02-11 close $10.55 Wednesday Feb 11 1998 Roy Carson, writing in a February 2, 1998 VMI Briefing e-mail, disputes rumours that former U.S. president George Bush is in Venezuela. Mr. Bush is said to have ties to gold giant Barrick Gold, which has been rumoured to be in friendly negotiations with Crystallex International. The well-connected Mr. Carson says that while the Bush rumours are untrue -- "if Bush were here I'd certainly know about it" -- board member and former Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney was in Caracas recently, "but any 'deal' with KRY would be strictly Stateside or in Canada!" Crystallex claims title to the gold-rich Las Cristinas 4 & 6 concessions in southern Venezuela and is challenging Placer's mineral rights in the Venezuelan Supreme Court. Vancouver-based Placer Dome has been working the concessions since 1992 and plans to build a $600-million (U.S.) mine at the site. . (c) Copyright 1998 Canjex Publishing Ltd. . Jerry Collins jercol@canada-stockwatch.com