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I don't know what the alias is but he would have to be using fake documents to cross into and out of the country and he's not using his own name.
The trick would be obtaining a licence plate number and reporting that to border services in both countries.
I wonder if anyone realizes that UC uses an alias when he travels back and forth across the border.
I wonder what
http://cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/menu-eng.html
and
http://www.cbp.gov/
would think about that.
I realize it's just a big Hee Haw to most of the posters here.
I talked to a lady that served Urbie last week. She served him three breakfast specials at Dakota Dunes a trough of baked beans and two carafes of coffee.
Sheep are for fleecing and your Urbie is stranded in a blizzard begging for quarters. Karma appears to have finally caught up with your hero.
Urbie is either up or down like most gamblers. Howard Hunt was a gamber that hit it big. Urbie just needs some more chips and a big bottle of booze.
Urbie must be counting on a big roll coming because he always mortgages his primary properties before he puts down a big stake and he is attempting to do this right now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._L._Hunt
Urban promoting GAI up here pretty heavily. I didn't ask how the rehab is going but he ought to lay off the garlic. For the general information of the thread he is on the skids big time.
"Cruel, perhaps, but sometimes the Greater Good must be considered."
"Let them eat cake."
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/227600.html
I don't think anyone is too concerned about guys like Urban ripping off people who think funny cars are cool on an unregulated stock market that only a moron would invest in.
They don't do mug shots here. I should know what happened by Monday afternoon.
There is a rumor Urban was arrested in Saskatoon yesterday. I have no idea what for but it was probably a DUI.
He was going to church regularly, helping out at the food bank and distributing needles to junkies but appears to have crossed the tracks again.
The SEC's investigation has been adjourned due to unexpected magnetic storms caused by 'sunspots.'
Once again Urban walks away a free man.
You're right he is a very handsome fellow and unlike Urbie does not smoke or drink.
Urban found in Indonesia’s remote Foja Mountains.
http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/foja-pix/
Ok - I'll phone him right now!
I don't think anyone is actively trying to serve him. I've bumped into him twice and in the last few months and I'm not even looking. He's pretty hard to miss.
UC is not in hiding. What makes you think that?
acrylics (Plexiglas/Perspex/Lucite) - William Chalmers
Actar 911 CPR Dummy - Dianne Croteau, Richard Brault and Jonathan Vinden
air-conditioned railway coach - Henry Ruttan (1858)
antigravity suit - Wilbur R. Franks (1940)
Balderdash - Laura Robinson and Paul Toyne (1984)
basketball - James Naismith (1892)
batteryless radio (AC radio tube) - Edward Samuel Rogers Sr. (1925)
bovril
butter substitute
Canadarm - SPAR and the National Aeronautical Establishment
(1981)
calcium carbide and acetylene gas (production of) - Thomas
L. "Carbide" Wilson (1892)
carcino embryonic antigen (CEA) blood test - Dr. Phil Gold (1968)
cardiac intensive care unit (first)
cobalt bomb - University of Saskatchewan and Eldorado Mining and Refining (1951)
compound marine engine - Benjamin Franklin Tibbets compound revolving snow shovel (trains)
computerized braille
crash position indicator (C.P.I) - Harry T. Stevinson and David M. Makow (1959)
dental mirror
disintegrating plastic
ear piercer
electric cooking range - Thomas Ahearn (1882)
electric hand prosthesis for children - Helmut Lukas (1971)
electrical car (North America's first)
electric wheelchair - George J. Klein
electron microscope - Prof. E. F. Burton and Cecil Hall,
James Hillier and Albert Prebus (late 1930s)
electronic wave organ - Frank Morse Robb (1927)
explosives vapour detector - Dr Lorne Elias (1990)
fathometer - Reginald Fessenden
film developing tank
five pin bowling - Thomas E. Ryan (1909)
foghorn - Robert Foulis (1854)
frozen fish - Dr. Archibald G. Huntsman (1926)
garbage bag (green plastic) - Harry Wasyluk and Larry Hanson (1950s)
Gestalt Photo Mapper - G. Hobrough (1975)
gingerale - John J. McLaughlin (1904)
goalie mask - Jacques Plante (1959)
Green ink - Thomas Sterry Hunt (1862)
hair tonic
heart valve operation (first)
helicopter trap (for landing on ships)
helium as a substitute for hydrogen in airships
hydrofoil boat - Alexander Graham Bell and Casey Baldwin
(1908)
IMAX - Grahame Ferguson, Roman Kroitor, Robert Kerr (1968)
instant potato flakes - Dr. Edward Asselbegs and the Food
Research Institute (1962)
insulation
insulin (as diabetes treatment) - Dr. Frederick Banting, Dr.
Charles Best and Dr. Collip (1921)
Java - James Gosling
Jetline
jolly jumper - Olivia Poole
kerosene - Abraham Gesner (1840)
lacrosse - played since the 1600s; William George Beers set
out standard rules (1860)
laser (sailboat) - Bruce Kirby, Ian Bruce and Hans Fogh (1969)
lightbulb (first patented) - Henry Woodward (1874)
liposomes
machine gun tracer bullet
MacPherson gas mask
measure for footwear
Muskol
Newtsuit - Phil Nuytten
newsprint - Charles Fenerty (1838)
Nursing Mother Breast Pads - Marsha Skrypuch (1986)
pablum - Drs. Alan Brown, Fred Tisdall, and Theo Drake (1930s)
pacemaker - Wilfred Bigelow
paint roller - Norman Breakey (1940)
panoramic camera - John Connon (1887)
Phi (position homing indicator for aircraft)
Pictionary - Rob Angel (1986)
pizza pizza telephone computer delivery services
portable high chair
Puzz-3D
(A) Question of Scruples - Robert Simpson (1984)
radar profile recorder - NRC (1947)
radio compass
retractable beer carton handle (Tuck-away-handle Beer
Carton) - Steve Pasjac (1957)
rollerskate
screw propeller
ski-binding
snowblower - Arthur Sicard (1927)
snowmobile - Joseph-Armand Bombardier (1937)
snowplow (rotary) - invented by J.W. Elliot (1869), first built by Leslie Brothers (1883)
steam foghorn
standard time - Sir Sanford Fleming (1879)
Stanley Cup - (Canada's Governor-General) Lord Stanley of Preston (1893)
Stol aircraft - de Havilland Canada (1948)
submarine telegraph cable
Superman - Joe Shuster and Jerome Siegel (1938)
table hockey - Donald Munro (1930s)
telephone - Alexander Graham Bell (1874)
Trivial Pursuit - Chris Haney, John Haney and Scott Abbott (1982)
variable Pitch Propeller - Wallace Rupert Turnbull (1918)
Walkie-Talkie - Donald L. Hings (1942)
washing machine
wirephoto - Sir William Stephenson (1921)
Yachtzee
zipper - Gideon Sundback (1913)
http://www3.sympatico.ca/taniah/Canada/things/
I was going to pick some up Monday and then saw they have 209,798,775 shares out. Not much hope of recovery...
Another colossal mining mishap.
Tahera loses more, looks for alternate plan
http://www.tahera.com/
2007-11-06 12:12 ET - Street Wire
by Will Purcell
Tahera Diamond Corp had another bleak quarter and the company is now considering a new mine plan that would have it high-grade the remaining kimberlite in its Jericho deposit in southwestern Nunavut. That would improve the economics, but profitability still seems a far reach given the large gap between revenues and operating costs.
The latest numbers
Tahera processed 127,500 tonnes of Jericho kimberlite during the third quarter. That works out to an average of 1,385 tonnes per day, or less than 70 per cent of the company's original target of 2,000 tonnes per day. The 99,300-carat haul translates to a grade of 0.78 carat per tonne, which is higher than Tahera achieved in its earliest quarters, but below the calculated mean grade for the pipe of 0.85 carat per tonne.
The diamond value is also below expectations. Tahera's third quarter production carried a value of $85 (U.S.) per carat, well below the values projected in a preliminary feasibility study four years ago. Far worse, the continued weakness of the United States dollar devalued Jericho's diamonds further in terms of Canadian currency, in which the mine pays most of its bills. Based on the average grade and diamond value, Jericho's kimberlite achieved a value of just over $66 (U.S.) per tonne during the third quarter. That is down slightly from the $67 (U.S.) per carat achieved during the second quarter.
Meanwhile, Tahera's operating costs outran revenues by a wide margin. Tahera's cash operating cost during the quarter was $17.8-million, which works out to an average of $138 (U.S.) per tonne. During the second quarter, Tahera's costs averaged about $157 (U.S.) per tonne. The operating cost improvement stems primarily from the increased rate of production.
Based on the revenues and costs, Tahera paid about $72 (U.S.) more per tonne to recover its Jericho diamonds during the third quarter than it managed to fetch from the sale of the gems. That is clearly a disappointment, but it is better than the $90 (U.S.) per tonne difference in the second quarter.
A change of plan
Closing that gap will be a formidable challenge, and Tahera is considering a move that would have it mine and process just the richer rock in the central and northern lobes of Jericho to maximize its revenues. That would have the company abandon about 2.8 million of the seven million tonnes of kimberlite in the total resource, leaving it with about 4.2 million tonnes grading a more pleasing 1.09 carats per tonne. That grade and the current diamond value would produce a rock value of about $93 (U.S.) per tonne, still a long way from the current operating costs at Jericho.
Increasing the rate of production to the planned 2,000 tonnes per day would help close the gap considerably, as much of Jericho's costs are fixed charges. Spreading the third quarter operating costs over the 180,000-tonne quarterly target would reduce the operating cost to $95 (U.S.) per tonne.
The company's costs would logically be higher than that, as it would face additional expenses to mine and process the extra 62,500 tonnes of kimberlite, but it does leave some reason to hope Jericho could break even on a cash flow basis with additional cost-efficiencies in place.
Reducing the mine plan to the central and northern lobes would reduce the life of Jericho considerably. Tahera's original mine plan called for the company to process 5.52 million tonnes of kimberlite over eight years, but the life would shrink to five more years, assuming all the resource makes it to a revised mine plan. Based on the numbers so far, Tahera is unlikely to recoup much of its capital investment in Nunavut's first diamond mine.
Tahera closed down 1.5 cents to 28 cents Monday on 869,270 shares.
Teck-Cominco have been in business for 101 years.
NovaGold, Teck suspend construction at Galore Creek
http://www.teckcominco.com/
2007-11-26 09:48 ET - News Release
See News Release (C-NG) NovaGold Resources Inc (2)
Mr. Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse of NovaGold reports
TECK COMINCO AND NOVAGOLD SUSPEND CONSTRUCTION AT GALORE CREEK
NovaGold Resources Inc. and Teck Cominco Ltd. will suspend construction activities at the Galore Creek copper-gold-silver project in northwestern British Columbia. A recent review and completion of the first season of construction indicate substantially higher capital costs and a longer construction schedule for the project. This, combined with reduced operating margins as a result of the stronger Canadian dollar, would make the project, as now conceived and permitted, uneconomic at current consensus long-term metal prices. NovaGold and Teck Cominco continue to view the property as a substantial resource and will initiate a comprehensive review to evaluate alternative development strategies. The Galore Creek partnership will conduct an orderly suspension of construction activities and will work with employees, the Tahltan Nation, local communities and other stakeholders to minimize the impacts of this decision.
In April, 2007, NovaGold retained AMEC Americas Limited, an independent engineering firm, to review the October, 2006, Galore Creek feasibility study and commence project engineering. The review covered the entire project with a focus on construction of the mine facilities, and tailings and water management structures.
By mid-October, 2007, AMEC's preliminary work indicated that capital costs would be significantly higher than originally estimated. As a result, NovaGold and Teck Cominco commenced a project strategy review, involving seven engineering teams, to assess the AMEC work. Estimated costs have continued to increase during this review, and NovaGold and Teck Cominco now have sufficient information to indicate that the capital cost of the project could approach as much as $5-billion. The engineering review is continuing.
Although there have been changes in scope from the original feasibility study, the largest portion of the capital cost increase is related to the complex sequencing of activities necessary to build the tailings dam and water management structures, and the resulting extension of the construction schedule by 18 to 24 months. The project has also been affected by the rapidly escalating capital costs affecting major construction projects worldwide.
In light of these developments, NovaGold and Teck Cominco have agreed to suspend construction and amend the terms of Teck Cominco's earn-in obligations in connection with the project. Under the amended arrangements Teck Cominco will invest an additional $72-million in the partnership to be used principally to reassess the project and evaluate alternative development strategies over the next five years. Teck Cominco's sole financing of other project costs incurred after Aug. 1, 2007, will now total $263-million. NovaGold and Teck Cominco will share the next $100-million of project costs 33 per cent and 67 per cent respectively, and will share costs proportionately thereafter.
"NovaGold has worked for years to advance this project toward production," said Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse, president and chief executive officer of NovaGold. "We reached this decision after considerable review and we share the disappointment of our employees, the Tahltan Nation, all stakeholders and local communities. We will work closely with Teck Cominco to unlock the potential of this world-class resource. NovaGold will continue to add value for shareholders by advancing the other projects in our portfolio, particularly the Donlin Creek project in Alaska."
Teck Cominco's president and CEO, Don Lindsay, said: "Very few copper-gold deposits of this quality have been discovered over the last few years even though the industry has invested billions of dollars in exploration worldwide. Galore Creek is a substantial resource and we will continue to work to determine how and when it can best be developed."
There are over 400 contractors and employees currently working on the Galore Creek project. In order to suspend activities, the partnership will review its personnel and supplier requirements over the weeks ahead. During this period and into 2008, the partnership will work with the Tahltan Nation and government regulators to develop a strategy to put the project on care and maintenance.
The Galore Creek project is owned by a 50/50 partnership between NovaGold and Teck Cominco with all aspects of the project overseen by Galore Creek Mining Corporation, a jointly controlled operating company.
"The Galore Creek team has operated this project to the highest standards," said Doug Brown, president of Galore Creek Mining Corporation. "Exceptional progress was made this year, and the team worked together to deliver on construction and partnership expectations. The partnership is committed to supporting its employees, contractors, suppliers and partners through this difficult period."
Long-term demand for copper and gold is expected to remain strong and the Galore Creek property contains one of the world's largest undeveloped copper and gold resources. British Columbia is a good place to invest and both companies remain committed to working in the province. NovaGold and Teck Cominco will continue to evaluate the project with the goal of identifying a viable development strategy that brings value to shareholders, the Tahltan Nation and local communities.
NovaGold and Teck Cominco expect there will be writedowns on this project and are working to determine the amount and timing.
NovaGold Resources and Teck Cominco will hold an investor teleconference on Monday, Nov. 26, 2007.
Participating in the call will be Mr. Van Nieuwenhuyse and Mr. Lindsay. You can dial in prior to 9 a.m. EST (6 a.m. PST) at 1-866-898-9626 and request the NovaGold/Teck Cominco teleconference
We seek Safe Harbor.
Most Americans don't know baseball was first played in Canada and we even bring them historic documentaries about their own sport legends.
Nope TSX it was 7-1 odds in May 2007. I'm long and strong on the Riders they're locked and loaded for 2008.
"i have just made a mess of things and no matter what i say to some people or how hard i try.. i make things worse and lose friends along the way."
Anybody that can say that is a good person. Cheers
Most Americans don't realize the goon squad they will encounter when entering canada. We employ low IQ goose stepping morons to defend our southern border with the U.S.
The people that killed the man were trained Royal canadian Mounted Police called to the airport because canada Customs was incapable of doing their job.
http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/menu-eng.html
I hope this poor man traveling to Canada to meet his mother rests in peace.
You got it... I'm going to forward that link to QCK maybe they can dig up some more material.
http://www.fuegoentertainment.net/projects.html
A group of kids at our local film school is doing a story about UC called "Behind Door No. 3" the production group is called the Queen City Kids and they've already been out to the Smeaton Dump. Outside of some pick up shots they've finished filming and should have something out in 2008.
UC's brother Max said Urbie is truly repentant about people losing their money and blames it all on the Feds. Anyway after he gets his life turned around rehab, etc. he is going to get a newco going and people that have certs in CMKX can all participate in the IPO. Max told me, "remember UC loves diamonds" and I think this was a hint the boys are on to something.
That would be the principled approach.
The ONLY thing that makes this a scam more than other mining plays are the prinicpals are much easier to make fun of. There is a fine line between real and phoney and I could point you in the direction of companies trading at + $2 with market caps in the tens of millions that are only more sophisticated PAIMs.
Jungle Fever - The Bre-X saga is the greatest gold scam ever. But to understand the enormity of the fraud, you had to be there. Our man in Borneo tells his story.
When I stepped off the plane in Jakarta, I was, like the rest of the world's lemmings, swept up in the Bre-X Minerals euphoria. The Canadian company had found the largest gold deposit of the century, buried deep underground in a dense Indonesian jungle on the island of Borneo. As Bre-X vice chairman John Felderhof later explained to me, a volcano had essentially "collapsed back onto itself" three million years ago, causing a massive buildup of heat and pressure, which created the miraculous treasure. He drew a diagram. It made sense. After all, he was on his eighth beer of the evening; I was on my fourth. What's more, everyone believed him--fellow geologists, engineers, financial analysts, business journalists, the world's largest mining companies, government officials, even a former U.S. President. "Geologically, it's the most brilliant thing I've ever seen in my life," Felderhof sputtered. "It's so big, it's scary. It's f--ing scary!"
Horrifying is a better word. Bre-X was a gold-mining hoax--the largest of any century--until it collapsed onto itself last month. Allegedly thousands of rock samples were "salted" with flakes of gold before they were tested. Today Felderhof is rich and sends his regrets from the Cayman Islands, where he professes his innocence and is applying for permanent residency. His deputy geologist, Mike de Guzman, is not so fortunate, having apparently jumped 800 feet into the jungle from a helicopter once the jig was up. Bre-X CEO David Walsh is holed up at the company's Calgary headquarters, scuffling with camera crews. Class-action lawsuits are flying, while criminal investigators are poring over the company's books.
The numbers are heart-stopping. The market value of Bre-X had topped $4 billion--a growth rate of 100,000% in three years. In early May the company melted into bankruptcy. But not before Walsh, his wife, and Felderhof had mined roughly $50 million from stock sales. And the gold? In the weeks before the fraud was exposed, some 71 million ounces of the yellow metal, worth $25 billion at today's prices, had supposedly been "proven" by Bre-X. Then Felderhof said he was "comfortable" with 200 million ounces--far more than the California gold rush. One Bre-X official told me "400 million."
The numbers tell only part of the story. To grasp the enormity of the scam, you had to be there. You had to see the cosmos that Bre-X had created, like an elaborate Hollywood set with hundreds of actors who could be loaded onto trucks and barges once the tickets had been sold. "You have to understand, this thing is like a 20-foot man," gushed Research Capital mining analyst Chad Williams after returning from an early pilgrimage. "For someone in our business, it's like taking the biggest Elvis fan to Graceland."
I spent two weeks in Indonesia in February to chronicle an epic tale of how a bunch of average Joes stumbled onto the holy grail, only to find powerful and greedy forces conspiring to take it away from them. Felderhof told me only one other publication (the Northern Miner) had ever been permitted inside Busang, the exploration camp on the island of Borneo. I felt lucky. I proved even luckier when I returned to New York with an illness that delayed my story for several weeks. ("Saved by a parasite," FORTUNE managing editor John Huey now says.) We held our fire again after Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, Bre-X's new partner, said it was conducting its own drilling tests--the first time in nearly four years anyone independent had checked beneath the surface. Looking back, I don't have the answers. But the trip provided a fascinating look at several characters who may be the century's greatest scam artists.
By the time I got to Indonesia, both Walsh and Felderhof were trapped in a Javanese version of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, the timeless movie farce in which Mickey Rooney, Milton Berle, and a slew of other characters try to outsleaze one another in a manic race to recover buried treasure. The Bre-X version came complete with payola, private eyes, and break-ins. It led from the leech-infested swamps of Borneo to the presidential palace in polluted Jakarta. It featured a dictator's greedy kids and some of the world's biggest mining firms, stabbing one another in the dark.
The story is familiar now. For nearly a year, until Freeport was awarded the contract, the Indonesian government had delayed giving Bre-X control over Busang. Big mining companies jockeyed for position. As the gold estimates grew, Indonesian officials were determined to select an established firm as the operator. Mining giants were lobbying for the post, none harder than Peter Munk, CEO of Toronto's Barrick Gold, the world's second-largest gold producer. Munk hired Kroll Associates, the world's biggest detective agency, to dig up dirt on Bre-X in anticipation of a hostile takeover bid. He enlisted former U.S. President George Bush to lobby Suharto, the Indonesian ruler. He retained the services of a daughter of Suharto to get an edge. (Bre-X offered $40 million to a son.)
When I arrived in early February, Jakarta had become a corporate war zone centered on five-star fortresses. Bre-X was at the Shangri-La (the "Bre-X Shangri-La"). From his window Walsh could see the enemy--the "Barrick Hyatt." Just up the road, at the Regent Hotel, a Houston lawyer was assembling spies to help him figure out whom to sue on behalf of Bre-X shareholders. It was impossible to figure out what was going on. The man holding the cards: Suharto's golfing buddy, a secretive timber tycoon named Mohamad "Bob" Hasan. The dictator had asked him to clean up the Bre-X mess. At one point it wasn't clear whom Suharto's government was favoring as Bre-X's partner. "This place is like Casablanca," complained Doug MacIntosh, Bre-X's investment banker at J.P. Morgan. "The story changes every day."
In Jakarta, I talked with Walsh, Felderhof, and other Bre-X officials dozens of times. We met separately. We met together at lunches and dinners. Not once did a yellow flag go up during those talks. Were they all just playing their parts in an elaborate scheme? If so, they were playing those parts quite well.
Even now, I have trouble believing that Walsh participated in the scam. He was a miserable soul when we were introduced in his Jakarta suite, just hours after he'd had it swept for electronic bugs. He was chain-smoking Dunhills and hacking his brains out. He hadn't exercised in years, he said, which was apparent from a huge deposit hanging over his belt. He was depressed and distracted, and often stared out his window at the litter and sewage that flowed continuously down a muddy canal--a metaphor, we joked, for the corruption that thrived in Indonesia. "We all find it hard to believe that we're responsible for the largest gold discovery probably in the history of the world," he said without much feeling. Indeed, Walsh looked more like some poor schlemiel who had just won the lottery and couldn't locate the ticket.
Walsh told me his story: A former stockbroker, he launched Bre-X in 1989. He hunted for gold in Quebec and joined a diamond rush in the Northwest Territories. His luck was so abysmal that he opened his 1991 annual report with the line "Yes, we are still in business." After filing for personal bankruptcy, he decided he needed "a proven gold finder." Enter Felderhof, whose claim to fame was the co-discovery of one of the world's biggest silver and gold mines in Papua New Guinea in 1968. It took Walsh two weeks to track down Felderhof, whom he hadn't seen in ten years. Using his last $10,000, Walsh flew to Indonesia, where Felderhof talked him into buying the rights to part of the Busang property in 1993.
Looking back, maybe I should have been suspicious when I met the Dutch-born Felderhof. He had a shifty mug, a gruff manner, and a hideous laugh trapped in the back of his throat ("Kkh! Kkh! Kkh!...Kkh! Kkh! Kkh!"). Still, his talent for storytelling made him more enjoyable than Walsh. Here was a pirate without the eye patch--a hard-drinking, swashbuckling explorer who had prowled the world's jungles, dodging flash floods and poisonous snakes. He wore his 14 bouts with malaria like medals on his chest. He said he was so poor that in 1992 he had to steal a Christmas tree for his family. Never again. He pulled out a photo of Ingrid, his second wife. "She just bought me a Lamborghini for Christmas," he said. "It's two seats strapped to a f--ing engine. I think she's trying to kill me. Kkh! Kkh! Kkh!"
Shortly after we met, Felderhof took me to dinner with de Guzman, his longtime pal whom he'd invited to join the Bre-X team. The Filipino geologist beamed like a jewel when Felderhof explained that he couldn't have discovered the gold without his deputy's "pioneering theories." De Guzman boasted that his IQ ranged from 150 to 170, which came in handy when he hiked 32 kilometers through dense jungle "with the camp on my back, eating noodles every meal for a week," and hunting for signs of mineralization. The first two drill holes were failures. "We almost closed the property," recalled de Guzman. "In December 1993 John said, 'Close the property,' and then we made the hit." Never mind that more than a dozen mining companies had dismissed the property as worthless. The previous operator had even drilled 19 holes, but "they were all in the wrong places," snickered Felderhof during the meal. Or they were "too shallow." Or the workers used a wet-drilling method that, ironically, washed away whatever gold they did strike. "Geology wasn't on their minds," added Felderhof. "They were spending all their time in town chasing girls and naming creeks after them." De Guzman, who, as it turns out, had at least four wives simultaneously, laughed as he recalled the various creeks--"Karen, Jenny, Martha, Ann." After consulting with a local tribe of Christian Dayaks, he gave the creeks back their traditional names.
As I continued my work, things got tense. Walsh complained about a break-in at his Calgary office; two weeks earlier his wife had found a spy rifling through the garbage at their Bahamas estate. He claims he sent a memo advising employees to "shred sensitive materials." (If true, that will make it harder for investigators to solve the mystery.) The company's top financial officer, Rolando Francisco, was also caught up in the hysteria. He would talk in his hotel room only after cranking up the volume on the TV. Over at the Hyatt, Barrick spokesman Luc Lavoie was waxing philosophical: "If this was the biggest oil discovery, so what? More oil. But gold is different...It brings up more emotions. It clouds the minds of people." It clearly fogged the mind of his client. I later learned that Barrick, last November, couldn't find gold in many Bre-X samples. "This can't be a scam!" Munk screamed at his deputies. "Do some more tests! Figure it out! I know it's there, okay? You confirm it's there."
I looked forward to seeing the gold. After four days in Jakarta, Felderhof joined me on the flight to Balikpapan, the only place in Borneo with a runway big enough to handle the plane. During the trip he explained that Bre-X had spent more than $1 million on a social-development program for the tribe of Christian Dayaks that comprised the bulk of the 400 workers. "I've always been interested in developing people," he said. From Balikpapan, it was an exhilarating two-hour jaunt in a helicopter to Busang. The dense, swampy jungle stretched as far as the eye could see. Felderhof leaned over and said that a chopper once made an emergency landing in the area. "When the pilot was found, four days later, his body was covered with leeches," yelled Felderhof, over the roar of the engine. "Kkh! Kkh! Kkh!" Little did I know that, six weeks later, Felderhof's sidekick, de Guzman, would apparently throw himself out of the same chopper we were sitting in. It would also take four days to find the body, which had been partly devoured by wild pigs and other creatures.
Once on the ground, you would never know that this wasn't the real deal. What a production! If Busang was a Hollywood set, the 2,000 Dayaks were the extras. Bre-X had electrified their village, built a new church, opened a kindergarten, and organized sewing classes for the local women. A swath of jungle had been cleared for an airport. Bre-X planned to open a fishery and a poultry-farming venture to enable the tribe to sell products to the mine.
I shared a cigar with a young villager who had just received a scholarship from Bre-X to study engineering. I met Pebit, the barefoot Dayak leader, as he was helping construct new homes for the workers--a tribal Levittown, courtesy of Bre-X. Through a translator, Pebit boasted that it was his decision to sacrifice a pig to God that "allowed the gold to be pulled from the ground." Then there was the army of young geologists working the site. At the exploration camp, I drank Bintang (a local beer) deep into the night with ten of these workers, many of whom were fresh out of geology school in Canada, Indonesia, or the Philippines. As we listened to wild monkeys screech like sirens in the darkness, the young men talked about the rigors of life in the bush. They complained about the grueling work schedule (eight weeks on, two weeks off) and the lack of sex. But they believed they were making history. They were the geological equivalent of batboys for the World Champion Yankees. They didn't know that they were pawns in a crooked game that was fixed from the get-go.
After two days, my tour was over. I saw no gold. But then again, I didn't know what real gold was supposed to look like buried in those long, tubular core samples. My return trip included a seven-hour speedboat ride down the narrow Mahakam River with Cesar Puspos, de Guzman's 36-year-old deputy. We spent the day waving to the locals, who lived in shabby huts and washed in the muddy water they used for defecation. Puspos, by contrast, had struck it rich. He drove a BMW. He described how de Guzman, "my mentor," awakened him in the middle of the night in a frenzy to announce that he had solved Busang's geological puzzle. When we arrived at Bre-X's office in the city of Samarinda, I noticed huge piles of core sample bags and persuaded Puspos to climb atop for a picture. Investigators say Bre-X's samples were "probably" salted in Samarinda before being delivered to testing labs in Balikpapan. (Walsh had once said that the bags were transported directly from Busang to the labs.)
After a few more days in Jakarta, I returned to the States on February 17. Bre-X soon unraveled. Even then, many believers chose to stay blind. In March, after de Guzman's death, Barrick's Peter Munk told FORTUNE, "I don't believe that those guys salted the mine...you couldn't have fooled that many analysts for that long." When Freeport said its drilling showed "insignificant" gold, Bre-X's flacks at Hill & Knowlton suggested that Freeport was behind a scheme to lower the stock price (see following box). The last time I heard from Walsh, March 20, he left me a phone message confirming some arcane historical facts in my story--a day after de Guzman's death and a week after Freeport called Walsh with the news that they were coming up dry at Busang. This is a crook? Or the Mr. Magoo of mining?
Looking back, some things seemed suspicious. Like the "accidental" fire at Busang that destroyed a building containing de Guzman's papers and visible gold samples. I was also disappointed to see no gold at the century's biggest gold deposit. A geologist, Steve Hughes, took me through the bush to a creek. We panned. We found nothing. "That's strange," said Hughes. "You'd think we'd find something." The next day I needled Felderhof, telling him I had bad news for Bre-X. "No gold, huh?" he snapped back. "Kkh! Kkh! Kkh!" There was another peculiar moment. In one of my last meetings in Jakarta with Felder-hof, de Guzman walked in. I rose and slapped him on the back, congratulating him on Freeport's emerging as Bre-X's new partner. He should have been thrilled. Instead, he was stone cold. Grim. Icy. He didn't even look at me. It was clear he wanted to talk to Felderhof alone.
No matter who pulled off the crime, Bre-X has left a mother lode of victims--from individual investors to the poor tribal people counting on the mine to earn a meager living. But even the pros got burned in this tale of greed. Recently I caught up with MacIntosh of J.P. Morgan, the Bre-X banker. We'd shared several meals in Jakarta, where he jabbered for hours about how the gold mine would be the most lucrative in the world. Doug is a mining engineer with 30 years of experience. I was curious how it felt to be suckered. "I have been surprised at every turn of this thing," he said, noting how fortunate I was that we had held the presses. "I hope that we're as lucky as you have been." Not a chance, mate.
http://www.sgrm.com/art45.htm
You're kidding?
The new government found a loop-hole in the endangered species act that will allow UC and Melvin to be reclassified as burrowing owls.
Upon approval by Cabinet they will spend the rest of their lives at the Saskatchewan Burrowing Owl Interpretive Centre in Moose Jaw.
http://www.moosejaw.ca/tourism/attraction/pdf/background_info.pdf
There are rumours a new government might offer UC clemency.
http://www.saskparty.com/
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskvotes2007/story/2007/11/07/ndp-results.html
Maybe it's not in the best interest of the case to serve him yet. Sometimes people don't get served because it is not in the best interest of the lawyer handling the case. As far as being in hiding or hard to find it ain't so.
I could have had him served three times last month and I'm not even looking for him.
Weird - I know UC loves to have parties at this place since they kicked him out of the Saskatoon Inn a few years back.
http://www.westgateinnmotel.com/
Man accused of targeting elderly, sick arrested in Saskatoon
Police probe suspect's activities in Edmonton, Winnipeg
Last Updated: Thursday, November 1, 2007 | 5:31 PM CT
CBC News
A man with a history of defrauding elderly or sick people and suspected of being involved in fraud schemes in Edmonton and Winnipeg has been arrested in Saskatoon.
Bryan Andrew Casavant, 46, was arrested by Saskatoon police Tuesday at around 5:30 p.m. after being spotted inside a Saskatoon hotel by an employee.
Bryan Casavant was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2006 and was paroled earlier this year.
(Edmonton Police Service) According to Edmonton police, he's now in the Saskatchewan Penitentiary in Prince Albert.
Edmonton police say they're in the process of laying charges against Casavant for two recent cases of fraud and theft.
Additional charges will likely be laid by the Winnipeg Police Service, Edmonton police said.
Meanwhile, other western Canadian police agencies continue investigations into similar incidents in which he may have been involved, the police said.
Casavant was already wanted on Canada-wide warrants for being unlawfully at large and for breach of his release conditions.
In Sept. 2006, he was sentenced to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to defrauding more than $20,000 from seniors and cancer patients.
He was paroled earlier this year, but later disappeared from a Calgary halfway house.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/2007/11/01/casavant-bryan.html
I posted that letter and attachments on the entrance to the washroom(s) at Dakota Dunes.
Apparently UC got a list of all the people suffering from gambling addiction in Saskatchewan and is training them on how to buy penny stocks.
http://www.tourismsaskatoon.com/ddcasino/
http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/story.html?id=d59fe874-b3fc-4685-9bf8-e8c0ad9ef59b&k=17779