If this were a total criminal enterprise as you suggest, by now there would be no ECPN.
I wish it were that simple. In the land of lollipops and puffy clouds, criminal enterprises would be quickly found out, prosecuted, and shut down.
In reality, con-jobs like ECPN can last for years. ECPN has close ties to several other long-lived "mining" scams - one in Araizona that claims that a pile of smelter slag has 10 million ounces of gold in it, that Phelps Dodge simply "wasn't interested" in recovering 100 years ago.
The other of the sister scams claims to have a lakebed deposit of gold in Nevada worth billions....despite the fact that lake beds are about the last place that gold would exist in economic amounts (geologically speaking).
The folks that set these scams up, including ECPN, have common roots and tactics. They use the same scam labs and scam "engineering" firms. Not one of them uses standard assay techniques, yet claims only their "special" assay process can see the gold (or platinum, or silver).
Each of these scams spends a considerable amount of money setting up the props necessary to convince folks of their validity - the land is privately owned (the smelter slag pile), the equipment is real (labs, earth movers, etc.), and money is even spent on drilling. But what is spent on setting up the "story" is a great investment - it sucks in investors who are easily impressed and know nothing about how a real mining operation works.
One more thing....not one of these scams has produced a verifiable ounce of gold, or platinum, or silver, yet have no problems issuing pictures of gold beads. It seems to work like a charm. Hence.....the long-lasting nature of these scams.
As for "closed company forums" - did you ever wonder why these exist? Because these are set up with the express purpose of continuing the pumping of the company behind closed doors, where nosy skeptics cannot critique what is said, and law enforcement cannot use the information dispersed in these forums to prosecute the sleazy promoters. If it cannot be said in an open forum, it should be treated as a lie.
