Bre-X geologist's body still missing
Bre-X geologist's body still missing
JAKARTA (JP): East Kalimantan rescue workers searching for the
body of Bre-X geologist Mike de Guzman returned to Balikpapan
empty-handed last night.
De Guzman, a Filipino, fell out of a helicopter Wednesday
afternoon on his way from Samarinda to the giant gold deposit in
Muaraancalong he discovered in 1994.
The pilot, Eddy Tarsono, said that 17 minutes after take-off
he heard a strong wind sweep into the helicopter before he
realized that his de Guzman, the only passenger, had disappeared.
Chairman of the search and rescue team Sugijanto said it was
suspected that Gusman fell into the thick forest or a swamp from
a height of 800 feet.
Sugijanto, who is also the head of Samarinda's Temindung
airport, said the rescuers were concentrating their operations on
the Muarakaman district in Kutai regency.
He said the searchers -- comprising workers from the local
Search and Rescue agency, the police, Bre-X, the Jakarta-based
helicopter leasing company and local residents -- would resume
their operations today.
The 43-year-old Filipino was the geologist who helped the
Canadian mining company, Bre-X Minerals, find the giant gold
deposit in Busang.
Together with fellow geologist John Felderhof, he spotted the
potential of the Busang deposit, now recognized as one of the
biggest in the world.
"De Guzman is believed to have been killed after falling from
a height of 800 feet (240 meters)," Sugijanto said, adding that
the geologist might have committed suicide.
"Police in Balikpapan are investigating a letter expected to
contain de Guzman's testament," he told The Jakarta Post.
Azhar Mualim -- the executive director of PT. Indonesia Air
Transport from which Bre-X leased the helicopter -- said there
was a strong indication that de Guzman committed suicide.
Azhar referred an unconfirmed report that in a note found in
one of his bags, de Guzman said he wanted to commit suicide for a
reason yet to be determined.
"Another indication is that the helicopter's safety belts and
sliding door were all okay."
The helicopter from which de Guzman tumbled, was a French-made
Allouette III type. A mechanic, Andrian, was the only other
person aboard.
De Guzman, Bre-X's operation manager, was interviewed about
his first trips to the Busang deposit for the Far Eastern
Economic Review's March 6 edition.
De Guzman, according to the magazine, was a geology graduate
of Manila's Adamson University who came to Indonesia in 1986 to
pioneer an in-depth study into the occurrence of gold deposits at
the junction of fault lines -- part of an overall theory of how
mineralized fluids are transported to the earth's surface.
He remembered first spotting an outcrop of yellowish volcanic
rock in Busang in 1994.
"My brain was dead at the time because I had just done a
difficult five-kilometer traverse," he told the magazine.
"But I wrote the words 'Check it out' on a strip of
plastic ..."
He and his friend Felderhof later found a deposit containing
at least 70 million ounces of gold worth more than Rp 50 trillion
(US$20 billion).
Bre-X, a small Calgary-based exploration company, holds a 45
percent stake in the deposit after a complicated, behind-the-
scenes bidding war. Freeport-McMoRan of New Orleans beat out two
other Canadian gold mining giants, Barrick Gold and Placer Dome,
to become the mine's operator.
Freeport-McMoRan has a 15 percent stake. Two local partners --
PT. Askatindo Karya Mineral and PT. Amsyalina -- hold 30 percent
and the Indonesian government has a 10 percent interest. (aan)