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Pastimes : Scammy Awards... Thursday, Feb 25, 1999 at 9pm EST -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: OpenSea who wrote (24)	1/4/1999 7:32:00 PM
From: Mr Metals	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 445

I nominate BRE-X MINERALS...5c to $290.00 and now it's ZERO on the biggest gold mining scam to hit the world...BTW, I lost big on it too:-( What about Busang! More than two weeks after the news that Freeport's confirmatory drilling at the Busang deposit in Kalimanatan had returned negative results the question as to whether this is the biggest scam in mining history is still open. Busang - the phenomenal bonanza discovered by the small Canadian company Bre-X and subject of intense jockeying for control by political and corporate heavies - in the course of successive reports grew in apparent size into what was beginning to look like the largest potential gold gold mine in the world. Then, not long before the Freeport announcement, it was reported that the geologist responsible for its discovery had fallen from a helicopter to his death in mysterious circumstances. Freeport McMoran, who had been appointed by the Indonesian government as the major company to take over the management of the project, carried out a due diligence program in an attempt to duplicate the results of Bre-X's exploratory drilling. This involved drilling close parallel holes. The report that these holes contained insignificant gold values was a market bombshell, bringing about a massive fall in the value of Bre-X stock and causing turmoil in the Toronto stockmarket. Computers failed to cope with the volume of trading as some $3 billion of share value was shed. The timing - just before Easter - complicated matters. A modest recovery in prices was attributed to a belief that a worthwhile deposit is still believed to exist at Busang, but much of this recovery may be attributable to short covering (traders who got advance information from Indonesia of Freeport's negative assays would have made fortunes). To any technical view the most damning information was that the appearance of the gold in the Freeport samples looked different. This immediately suggests that the core samples from the original holes were salted, probably with alluvial gold. If it does turn out that Busang represents the biggest and most sustained mining fraud ever perpetrated the ramifications are extensive. The attractions of Indonesia as an exploration mecca are severely downgraded - with already apparent problems for capital raising and deals suspended, the Indonesian government loses face for having been fooled, the Canadian stock exchanges live down to their worst reputation , and the mining industry as a whole takes another dent in its image. There have been many attempts at salting core samples, not only with gold mineralisation, although gold is by nature the most obvious metal to try it on with, but none come to mind on this scale or of this duration. In the 1950's, when the Witwatersrand goldfields were being extended by deep drilling through 5000 feet of Karroo cover to find the gold bearing formations of the southern part of the basin in the Orange Free State, some of the closely guarded cores were salted successfully by agents of big stockmarket players. The resultant court case was a now almost forgotten legal cause celebré. But probably not one to match what is in store for Busang - even it does all turn out to have been a mistake. Geo Resource Forum www.geoforum.com.au Feb 10 1997 MM

To: OpenSea who wrote (24)	1/4/1999 7:41:00 PM
From: Mr Metals	Respond to of 445

Emery and Finnerty Jungle Fever: The Bre-X Saga Is The Greatest Gold Scam Ever LEAD STORY-DATELINE Fortune , June 9, 1997, pages 116-126. Labeled the worst mining fraud in history, the Bre-X gold scandal has bilked many investors of their retirement savings and has witnessed several billion dollars of market value disappear. Bre-X Minerals Ltd. is a Calgary-based mining company that claimed to discover a huge gold deposit in Busang Indonesia. Estimates of the size of the deposit ranged from 71-400 million ounces. The firm's common stock, which was listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSE), soared on the news reaching a growth rate of 100,000% during the last three years. Fortune June 9, 1997, pages 116-126. The company, which was started by David Walsh a former stockbroker, grew from a basement office to the 30th largest firm in Canada and a spot on the TSE 300 index. The Wall Street Journal, May 16,1997 pages C1, C17. Bre-X was apparently "salting" the core samples from the mine with flakes of gold before they were tested. News of the hoax came when Freeport-McMoRan conducted independent drilling next to Bre-X's highest grade holes and found only insignificant amounts of gold. The results were then submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Fortune, June 9, 1997, page 128. The common stock plummeted over 90% on the news. Bre-X has since filed for bankruptcy in Alberta. The discovery was propagated by John Felderhof the vice-chairman and head geologist of the company. He explained how 3 million years ago a volcano "collapsed back onto itself," and caused a massive buildup of heat and pressure. These forces created a gigantic gold treasure. The amazing part of the story, according to Fortune reporter Richard Behar, is that "everyone believed him [Felderhof]-fellow geologists, engineers, financial analysts, business journalists, the world's largest mining companies, government officials, even a former US president [George Bush]."Fortune, June 9, 1997, pages 116-126. A Wall Street Journal reporter remarked, "What is still striking about the whole thing is how nearly no one suspected that the Bre-X glitter wasn't real. Investment analysts competed to produce the most glowing description of its prospects."The Wall Street Journal, May 16,1997 pages C1, C17. Business Briefs Staff, Wire Reports -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bre-X gold scam sends stock to rock bottom Shares in disgraced Bre-X Minerals crashed to rock bottom yesterday, and Indonesian authorities halted its operations after revelations that its much-touted gold find in Borneo was an intricate fraud. Shares once worth more than $200 apiece traded for a few pennies on the Toronto Stock Exchange in the first day of trading for Bre-X since the hoax was exposed Sunday. During the last three years, officials of the small, Canadian exploration company repeatedly increased their estimates of gold at Busang on the island of Borneo, eventually gauging the deposit at 71 million ounces -- which would have been the biggest gold find this century. On Sunday, however, Bre-X released a report from an independent consulting firm exposing the project as a scam "without precedent in the history of mining." The report said thousands of samples had been doctored with gold from elsewhere. MM

To: OpenSea who wrote (24)	1/4/1999 7:45:00 PM
From: Mr Metals	Respond to of 445

Fool's gold and other goodies from Canada Bre-X is the latest stock scam from up north BY KEVIN WHITELAW One company claimed to be cultivating the world's largest pearls. Another firm described itself as the proud inventor of the Ad-Zapper, a device that deleted commercials from VCR recordings of TV programs. Still another said it had concocted a nose spray that cures AIDS. In addition to their almost comically false claims, these companies had something else in common: They all sold shares on the Vancouver or Alberta stock markets in Canada. Veteran traders recall these ventures as among the more colorful scandals in recent years on the fraud-ridden, but seldom dull, Vancouver Stock Exchange and its smaller cousin, the Alberta Stock Exchange. But none matches the scope of the latest horror tale produced by Canada's woolly markets: the Bre-X Minerals affair, in which a gold find said to be worth billions turned out to be practically worthless. Some prospects. Bre-X was launched on the Alberta Stock Exchange in 1989 and traded for pennies--until the firm announced a large gold find in Indonesia. In Bre-X's press releases, the find kept growing: from 30 million ounces to 40 million to 57 million to 71 million. Finally, Bre-X's vice chairman suggested the real figure might be 200 million ounces, making it the largest find in recent history. When the company was listed on the Toronto market and Nasdaq, its market capitalization soared to $4.5 billion after blue-chip mutual funds bought in. But one of the company's partners recently reported discovering "insignificant" quantities of gold at the Indonesian "find." Last week, after an independent review concluded that the original tests had been falsified, Bre-X's stock collapsed. Responsibility for the fraud is under investigation. Will the Bre-X affair force Canadian markets to clean up their acts? Although the president of Toronto's stock market called last week for creating a national securities commission (provinces are in charge of regulating markets), monumental changes would be necessary for such an agency to have an impact. Canadians have always had a more relaxed view of how much protection investors need from scammers, preferring instead to pursue a buyer-beware approach. This made sense, particularly in Vancouver and Alberta, the homes of most of Canada's start-up mining companies. It enabled these companies to raise capital, stay alive, and have a better chance of striking it rich. That's not to say the more heavily regulated U.S. markets are scandal free. Nasdaq, for example, has come under heavy scrutiny recently for price fixing and mob ties. But it's widely believed that the regulatory bar is much higher here. Real finds. It's also true that most firms trading on the Vancouver and Alberta markets are legitimate. Last year, some $8.8 billion (U.S.) in shares was traded in 1,500 companies on the VSE, which some consider the best market in North America for raising capital for mineral exploration. Indeed, many U.S. mining firms also look to the VSE for financing. "If you're a small, legitimate mining concern, the [non-Canadian] options have disappeared," says University of Michigan finance professor Paul Seguin. "That leaves the VSE as the only game in town." Still, putting money in VSE or ASE stocks is not for the fainthearted. "If you're into gambling, this is a good market for you," says John Woods, who runs Canada Stockwatch, the premier Canadian stock-market-data and analysis firm. "But don't confuse it with investing." One of the biggest problems is an especially insidious form of insider trading. Promoters sometimes form shell companies and sell shares to insiders at cheap, but steadily increasing, prices. As the purchasing builds the stock price higher, regular investors buy into it and the insiders bail--making a tidy profit. In other words, insiders make money whether or not the company has a real product. (With Bre-X, the pattern held: International investors got bilked while many insiders made a killing.) Adrian du Plessis, a freelance financial-market investigator, argues that British Columbia regulators may have less incentive to crack down. "As long as Howe Street [Vancouver's Wall Street] players are stealing from Americans, Europeans, and Asians, there will be no will to act," says du Plessis. Bre-X Minerals' Busang project in Indonesia went from being "the world's largest gold deposit" to the biggest gold swindle in world mining history. Bre-X: Gold Today, Gone Tomorrow examines Bre-X's rise up the credibility curve, the red flags that were raised along the way, and how the scam was engineered to deceive both analysts and investors. It reveals when the salting swindle began, how it was executed and how it all unraveled. The authors have had access to documents from Busang's earliest days, have interviewed more than just the usual suspects, and have filtered the material through more than two decades of experience working in, and covering the mining industry. A gripping, detailed chronology by The Northern Miner's editor Vivian Danielson and staff reporter James Whyte. From the steaming jungles of Indonesia to the money markets of the world this is the incredible but true story of the world's greatest stock swindle. The saga of Bre-X Minerals and its Busang "gold" project in Indonesia is about greed and gullibility, about broken dreams and bitterness, about corporate power and backroom intrigue, about deception and disillusionment, about lessons hard-learned and about how good judgement can be swept away by mass euphoria. It is another cautionary tale of gold's power to seduce and blind not only sinners, but saints and scientists as well. MM

To: OpenSea who wrote (24)	1/4/1999 7:48:00 PM
From: Mr Metals	Respond to of 445

Bre-X was a junior gold exploration company that perpetrated the largest "gold discovery scam" in the history of the world. The stock went from pennies to $286.50 (pre-split basis), at which time the gold reserves of this company supposedly amounted to 200 million ounces (a value of $70 billion) ... 8% of the entire world's gold in one deposit! The stock went right back to pennies when the scam was finally discovered. For those who don't know, it turns out that two or three of the Bre-X geologists merely sprinkled gold onto the drill cores! That simple crime created THE most extreme example of the "greed-then-grief" cycle that you will ever see in your lifetime. Way before this incredible story unfolded, Bre-X looked like just another "PennyGold type of stock." Founded in 1988, here is its high-low trading history: YEAR HI LO 1989 0.42 0.15 1990 0.75 0.20 1991 0.41 0.04 1992 0.35 0.06 1993 1.55 0.12 1994 3.10 1.15 1995 59.00 1.90 -- and onwards up to $286.50 (NOT a typo!), before the deception was finally discovered. At its peak, the market put a $6 billion valuation on a company that: owned a piece of undeveloped jungle in Indonesia had provided NO independent verification of its drill results BEFORE it could pour its first ounce of gold, would have to spend $1.5 billion in a country where you are subject to the whim of a corrupt and greedy government was headed by some rather questionnable characters with generally poor reputations. There are many lessons to be learned from the "$6 billion" greed side of Bre-X. Suffice it to repeat that Bre-X will stand forever as the ultimate example of the excesses of the "greed" part of the "greed-then-grief" cycle. But for PennyGold Practitioners, the lessons lie NOT in the years of 1994 and after, but in 1993 and before. Because, while PennyGold does not create these cycles, it DOES recognize and exploit them. From 1989 to 1993, the Bre-X stock systematically yo-yo'd in price. Several times, Bre-X was an "over-killed" stock that APPEARED dead, but was actually in no danger of delisting. Each year, the Prez worked hard to develop a new promotion. Notice how you could have bought Bre-X for as low as 4 cents in 1991, six cents in 1992 and 12 cents in 1993. Yes, from 1989 to 1993, Bre-X was just a typical "penny dreadful." But you could have tripled (or better your money) each year by following PennyGold strategies ... and that is BEFORE the really big move even occurred! The big fraud that occurred post-1992 is merely the most extreme (and illegal) version of what causes these movements ... ruthless promotion ... rumors of rumors ... exaggerated stories .... endless hype ... greed. Then, quiet ... disillusionment ... fear ... panic ... grief ... anger. And the cycle happens over and over. How can that be? Believe it or not, the 97% of penny stock investors who lose money simply forget ... because "this time it's different." And those who finally give up are replaced by new "players" with a zero knowledge base. PennyGold puts you into the ranks of the 3%. It will show you how to find those "over-killed" stocks, how to make sure they are not about to delist, how to find the ones with the most upside potential, and how to buy and sell them. It is infinitely more powerful than what I used to do by hand. For example, while I did not track Alberta actively at the time of Bre-X, today's electronic version of PennyGold would certainly have identified this stock as a PennyGold buying opportunity. Of course, I would likely have sold it at 40-50 cents and then kicked myself for the next decade, so I'm better off ;-) MM

To: OpenSea who wrote (24)	1/4/1999 7:50:00 PM
From: Mr Metals	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 445

Bre-X: The Aftermath - April April 1, 1997 Suits filed against Bre-X April 1, 1997 Bre-X under Ontario Securities Commission review April 2, 1997 Trading in Bre-X shares suspended again April 3, 1997 Trading in Bre-X to resume? April 4, 1997 Bre-X trading halted again April 7, 1997 Indonesian mining chief replaced April 7, 1997 Junior firms' role seen unhurt by Busang buzz April 9, 1997 Bre-X stock sale in '96 was profitable April 10, 1997 Bre-X clarification may be near April 14, 1997 Canada mulls mining share oversight April 17, 1997 Bre-X Minerals outlines assay procedures April 24, 1997 Bre-X shares up on latest report April 25, 1997 Freeport may leave Busang project April 28, 1997 Bre-X expects results this week April 29, 1997 Bre-X companies sign COWs -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- April 1, 1997 Suits filed against Bre-X Bre-X Minerals Ltd. of Canada was reported to have been the object of two class-action suits, wire services said. Citing the Canadian Press news agency, Reuters said one suit was filed in U.S. District Court in New York, alleging that the company made mis-statements about the Busang project and that it sold shares before damaging news emerged concerning the assay reports on the Indonesian gold property. Another class action was reported to have been filed in Texas by the law firm of Baker & Botts of Houston. April 1, 1997 Bre-X under Ontario Securities Commission review NEW YORK -- The Ontario Securities Commission said it has launched an investigation into Bre-X Minerals Ltd. Bre-X stock plunged 82 percent in one day last week after new drilling results at its much ballyhooed Busang gold discovery turned up "insignificant" amounts of the precious metal. Trading in the stock was suspended. The Bre-X situation is "a very big issue that a number of regulators will be looking into, including the OSC," said Larry Waite, director of the enforcement branch of the securities regulator. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which has a policy of not commenting on such things, wouldn't say whether it, too, is investigating Bre-X, which trades on the Nasdaq stock market as well as the Toronto Stock Exchange. April 2, 1997 Trading in Bre-X shares suspended again Trading in embattled Bre-X Minerals Ltd. shares lasted only 24 minutes Tuesday, according to The Daily Telegraph, London. The Toronto Stock Exchange halted trading after more than 7.7 million shares were traded in the short period, overloading the exchange's computers. The gold content of the company's Busang property in Indonesia has been in question during the past week. Several class action suits have also been filed against Bre-X in the United States, accusing the company and its chairman, David Walsh, of violating U.S. securities law. April 3, 1997 Trading in Bre-X to resume? Trading in shares of Bre-X Minerals Ltd., the Canadian junior exploration company, was scheduled to resume Thursday morning on the Toronto Stock Exchange, according to Reuters. Trading in Bre-X shares was halted on Tuesday after heavy volume overloaded the exchange's computer, and again Wedesnday trading was halted due to heavy volume and technical problems. The company's stock plummeted in the past week on questions over the gold reserves at the Busang property in Indonesia. Meanwhile, samples from independent drilling tests on the Busang property were likely to be flown to Australia for analysis by mid-April. Results possibly could be available by the end of the month, industry sources said, adding that a Canadian consulting firm was drilling six test holes to determine the amount of gold at Busang. April 4, 1997 Bre-X trading halted yet again Trading in shares of Bre-X Minerials Ltd., Calgary, Alberta, were halted again Thurday by the Toronto Stock Exchange, making it the third day in a row that trading in the Canadian junior exploration company's shares had been stopped due to technical problems stemming from huge volumes of trading activity, wire reports said. Bre-X has been under a cloud in recent weeks because of questions concerning the true value of its Indonesian gold property at Busang. Meanwhile, Canadian securities regulators Thursday hinted at the nature of their investigation of Bre-X, which has been ongoing since late 1996. The Ontario Securities Commission said it could confirm that the probe relates to "whether there has been a breach of continuous disclosure requirements or insider trading provisions." Another development in the saga on Thursday was the filing in Canada of a class action suit against Bre-X and SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., which did the resource calculations on the Busang deposit. Previously, five class action suits against the company have been filed in U.S. courts. Also on Thursday, SNC-Lavalin's subsidiary Kilborn SNC-Lavalin Inc. confirmed its original calculations that estimated the deposit contained nearly 71 million troy ounces of gold. Kilborn noted that its confirmation was based on assay samples provided by Bre-X. April 7, 1997 Indonesian mining chief replaced By decree signed with President Suharto, the top mining official in Indonesia was replaced Monday, according to Reuters. Kuntoro Mangkusubroto was replaced as director general for general mining by Adjat Sudradjat, who has been director general of geology and mining resources. It was unclear whether Mangkusubroto's dismissal was related to the furor surrounding the Busang gold property. Meanwhile, press reports over the weekend said that Normet Pty Ltd., an Australian metallurgical consulting firm, said in a 1996 report that the gold particles found in Busang samples were consistent with those found in streams and riverbed deposits rather than in an underground deposit as is the case at Busang. Shares in Bre-X traded higher on the Toronto Stock Exchange at the open Friday in comparatively light volume, then pushed higher in active trading. Bre-X trade was stopped due to technical problems in Toronto Thursday after trading frenetically for just more than three hours. Trading volume in the stock has skyrocketed. April 7, 1997 Junior firms' role seen unhurt by Busang buzz By VICTOR OZOLS NEW YORK -- Doubts about the size of Bre-X Minerals' Indonesian gold reserves underscore the importance of due diligence reviews but are not likely to discourage future mineral exploration by junior companies, according to two gold industry experts. The trend of small exploration companies scouring the globe to discover valuable mineral deposits with the hope of making a deal with a major mining company is exemplified by the story of Bre-X Minerals, which attracted bids from some of the world's largest miners for the Busang deposit it touted as one of the largest in recent history. "I don't think it will have an effect" on gold exploration, said Ted Kempf, senior research analyst with the CPM Group. The concept of having small companies do the leg work for larger, capital-rich companies is "more efficient than having geologists (from major companies) comb rocks all over the world," he said, adding, "Why spend money on an area that someone else is developing?" The current Bre-X situation will "make individuals take a second look at junior companies, but won't have much of an effect on exploration," he said. New Orleans-based Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Co., Bre-X's joint-venture partner, was protected from major financial losses by its due diligence process, in which Freeport's initial test drilling revealed "insignificant" amounts of gold. "This is an example of how companies have to be very careful about doing their due diligence," said John Lutley, president of the Washington, D.C.,-based Gold Institute. "Nobody's out a great deal of money yet, because (Freeport) was waiting for due-diligence confirmation," he said, noting "the people who are most badly hit are those who bought stock in Bre-X." Small companies are finding an easier time sourcing funds for exploration projects than a decade ago, a development which enables mineral exploration to become increasingly global (AMM, Dec. 23, 1996). April 9, 1997 Bre-X stock sale in '96 was profitable David Walsh, president of embattled Bre-X Minerals Ltd., Vancouver, British Columbia, and his wife, Jeannette Walsh, as well as John Federholf, vice president, sold shares in Bre-X and its parent company last year, which earned the three a $59-million profit, according to the Financial Times, London. The story goes on to note that the share sale in 1996 represented only about 3 percent of the Walshes holdings. Bre-X Minerals has come under a cloud of doubt in the past few weeks as questions concerning the value of the Indonesian gold property arose. The Financial Times noted that the Walshes and Felderhof conducted a number of trades in August 1996 when Indonesian authorities were withdrawing the company's exploration license. April 10, 1997 Bre-X clarification may be near Analysts late Wednesday were faxed copies of a report by Bre-X Minerals Ltd. that they hope will shed light on the controversy and confusion surrounding the Busang gold property, wire services said. The report is said to include a discription of Bre-X Minerals sampling and assay procedures. The company had been critized for not being more forthcoming about it practices and procedures. While Bre-X has estimated the Busang deposit in Indonesia contains at least 71 million ounces of gold, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. said that its preliminary tests as part of a due diligence found "insignificant" amounts of gold. April 14, 1997 Canada mulls mining share oversight The Ontario Securities Commission and the Toronto Stock Exchange said late Friday that they would jointly set up a special task force to look at new standards for companies doing exploration work and for them to report on results, wire services said. The creation of the Mining Standards Task Force, which is to make its report public this autumn, is in response to much criticism arising from the controversy around Bre-X Minerals Ltd. and its Busang gold property in Indonesia. Bre-X said that the property contains at least 71 million troy ounces of gold. But Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. in preliminary tests on the property said the deposit contains "insignificant" amounts of gold. April 17, 1997 Bre-X Minerals outlines assay procedures NEW YORK -- Canadian gold prospector Bre-X Minerals Ltd. has released a report analysts said may shed light on the mystery swirling around the Busang gold discovery in Indonesia. The report outlined Bre-X's sampling and assay procedures at Busang, which has been embroiled in controversy since doubts about the project surfaced last month. Bre-X has been under pressure since tests by its partner, New Orleans-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., on the Busang gold property indicated the deposit may contain "insignificant" amounts of gold. The announcement prompted panic selling of Bre-X shares last month. April 24, 1997 Bre-X shares up on latest report Shares in Bre-X Minerals Ltd. rose more than 50 percent on the Toronto Stock Exchange Wednesday after the company announced geological test results from samples taken before doubts were cast on the claim that the Busang deposit in Indonesia contained 71 million troy ounces of gold, the Financial Times reported. The shares closed at Canadian $3.62 ($2.60). Trading volume was reported to be 17 million shares. April 25, 1997 Freeport may leave Busang project Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., New Orleans, was reportedly planning to withdraw from the Busang gold project even before audit results are released, an Indonesian newspaper reported, according to wire service reports. Currently drilling and core testing is under way on the Indonesian deposit, which was touted as the largest in the world outside of South Africa by the Canadian junior exploration company Bre-X Minerals Ltd. In recent week, the project has been under an immense cloud as to its true gold reserves. On Thursday, Freeport confirmed that its tests of its original core samples continued to find "insignificant amounts" of gold. April 28, 1997 Bre-X expects results this week Canada's Bre-X Minerals Ltd. said Sunday the company independently testing drilling results from the company's Busang property would release results to Bre-X by the end of this week. Bre-X contracted for the study after Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc. found "insignificant" amounts of gold in its test of the Indonesian property. April 29, 1997 Bre-X companies sign COWs Two companies in the Calgary, Alberta,-based Bre-X Minerals Ltd. group have signed contracts of work (COWs) with the Indonesian government even as the controversy over Bre-X's Busang gold deposit continues to swirl, according to wire service reports. Bresea Resources Ltd. and Bro-X Minerals Ltd. have signed contracts of work for the Sangihe Project, which will be held 60 percent by Bro-X, 30 percent by Bresea and 10 percent by an Indonesian partner. The Sable Project is to be owned 80 percent by Bro-X and 20 percent by an Indonesian partner. An independent audit of the Busang project is to be released late this week. Bre-X's potential partner in the Busang project triggered the controversy when it disclosed last month that its preliminary tests found only "insignificant" amounts of gold. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------