mce-anchormce-anchor 2019-10-29 - In the News
mce-anchormce-anchor The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday edition that former Bre-X Minerals geologist John Felderhof, a central figure in Canada's largest stock market fraud, died on the weekend. The Globe's Andrew Willis and Niall McGee write that Mr. Felderhof was vice-president of exploration at Bre-X when the tiny mining company reported finding a massive gold deposit in Busang, Indonesia, and went on a stock market tear. Independent geologists exposed the claim as bogus, and Mr. Felderhof was charged with spreading false information and insider trading, but was acquitted in 2007. He died in the Philippines this past weekend at age 79 of natural causes, said his lawyer, Joe Groia. At its peak in 1996, the exploration play had a market value of $6-billion and Mr. Felderhof claimed the property contained more than 200 million ounces of gold with a value of $70-billion, which would have made it the world's largest gold mine. In 1997, a potential buyer for the mine investigated Bre-X's site and found no significant gold. Consultants discovered Bre-X geologists faked drilling results by salting rock samples with gold from jewelry and flakes panned from nearby rivers. Mr. Felderhof was the only Bre-X executive to stand trial.
P.S. The Bre-X scandal was the background to the world standards for mining disclosure regarding public information of exploration results, surveys, profitability studies and evaluations of mineral resources and mineral reserves.
