Busang gold scam details uncovered
Busang gold scam details uncovered
NEW YORK (AP): Ingredients for one of the world's biggest gold scams: one pool table, lots of crushed rock, and just 60 ounces (1.7 kilograms) of the precious metal.
Private investigators have pieced together how a geologist for Bre-X Minerals Ltd. altered samples from the Busang mine in Indonesia, according to a report Tuesday in Toronto's The Globe and Mail.
The remote mine on the island of Kalimantan was once thought to be the richest gold find this century, containing anywhere between 70 million and 200 million ounces of the metal.
Strathcona Mineral Services, the consulting company that discovered the hoax, told The Globe and Mail that investigators found a local tribesman who sold gold to Bre-X geologist Michael de Guzman.
The investigators contend de Guzman and others carefully mixed that gold with crushed rock on a pool table at Bre-X offices in Samarinda, a coastal town on Borneo.
Starthcona's president, Graham Farquharson, told The Globe and Mail that de Guzman probably used about 60 ounces (1.7 kilograms) of gold, worth about US$21,000.
Officials with Strathcona and Bre-X Minerals did not return phone calls seeking comment Tuesday.
De Guzman plunged to his death from a helicopter March 19, shortly before the hoax was exposed. Bre-X claims he committed suicide, but his family in the Philippines believes he may have been killed.
Strathcona conducted its own investigation into Busang and reported May 3 that it was a hoax "without precedent in the history of mining."
Bre-X's stock, once worth more than $200 a share because of the excitement about Busang, became nearly worthless when it opened for trading a few days after the Strathcona report. Bre-X has since filed for bankruptcy protection from its creditors.
The private investigators working in Indonesia were hired by Bre-X and are being advised by one of Strathcona's geologists, The Globe and Mail said. Detectives from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are also investigating.