http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21112905-643,0...

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Revelins attacks 'media circus'
Robin Bromby
January 25, 2007

RICHARD Revelins was freed yesterday morning from a gag order about allegations of misleading conduct and insider trading - and wasted no time airing his views about the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
He said both he and fellow Mining Projects Group director Bryan Frost had suffered huge damage to their reputations by what he called ASIC's "media circus". He promised that the ASIC action against them would be thrown out of court as being vexatious and frivolous.
The regulator has begun proceedings in the Federal Court against Mr Frost and Mr Revelins over an August 2005 announcement concerning uranium potential on the tiny Pacific island of Niue. ASIC is seeking civil penalties and a ban on the two men managing corporations.

It alleges that the company, then called Yamarna Goldfields, was misleading or deceptive in an announcement to the stock exchange regarding an option for 80 per cent of a uranium project on Niue - an option that was never exercised.

The announcement made references to Olympic Dam, the largest uranium deposit in the world, and the potential for Niue to host a similar or larger uranium resource, based on geological modelling.

ASIC said it would also tell the court that the two directors traded Yamarna shares immediately after the announcement and it would seek declarations that Mr Frost and Mr Revelins engaged in insider trading and misused information. The two directors, who both have long involvement in setting up companies and promoting them, were subject to an ASIC ban on discussing the case, but Mr Revelins said the restraint was lifted yesterday morning.

But, he said, the damage had already been done to him and Mr Frost with these allegations being widely publicised before the matter got anywhere near a court hearing. "It was sent to every newspaper in the country," Mr Revelins said. But he said he would be surprised if the case went the full course in the courts. "They (ASIC) will lose," he vowed. "People are getting to sick to death of this type of persecution."

He said he and Mr Frost had bought Yamarna shares after the announcement, and they should have been allowed to do so once all the material information had been disclosed to the market.

But he also takes issue with ASIC's grounds. The regulator alleges that historical work did not support the presence of uranium; there was no geological association between Olympic Dam and Niue, with each having different mineralisation; and that the company did not have reasonable grounds for saying the geological model showed the potential for Niue to host equal or greater quantity than Olympic Dam. Mr Revelins argued all the claims were based on independent geological advice.

He said a finding against the two would throw doubt over any company using statements from independent experts in their stock exchange announcements.