Former Bre-X chief 'unaware of tampering'

Former Bre-X chief 'unaware of tampering'

TORONTO (Reuter): Bre-X Minerals Ltd.'s former exploration
chief said Friday he was unaware of and did not participate in
any tampering with gold samples at Bre-X's now-worthless Busang
deposit in Indonesia.

Former exploration head John Felderhof also said in a
statement from his home in the Cayman Islands that he still
believes "there is a significant amount of gold at Busang."

Felderhof was named Canada's "Prospector of the Year" in March
for his work in finding the Busang deposit, once touted as the
century's biggest gold discovery.

But the project collapsed in May after an independent audit
found insignificant amounts of gold in the property. The
consultant said the Busang data had been falsified on an
unprecedented scale.

Calgary, Alberta-based Bre-X's last official estimate for
Busang was 71 million ounces, while Felderhof had said it could
hold up to 200 million ounces.

Bre-X later filed for bankruptcy protection and ousted
Felderhof. The company, whose once high-flying stock was delisted
from Canadian stock exchanges and Nasdaq, faces a series of
investor lawsuits.

Felderhof's statement came a few days after Bre-X's private
investigators concluded that Michael de Guzman, the mining
company's chief geologist, salted gold samples from the Busang
deposit.

After conducting interviews in Indonesia, the investigators
said de Guzman bought small amounts of gold from a Kalimantan
tribesman and used it to salt core samples from the Busang site.

However, the investigators said others were involved in the
tampering.

De Guzman died in an apparent suicide in March when he fell
from a helicopter in Indonesia shortly before the fraud came to
light.

Felderhof, who has been in virtual seclusion in the Caymans,
has denied any wrongdoing in the Busang affair.

He said on Friday that he believed that the systems and
personnel at Busang were adequate to detect tampering.

"I still find it very hard to believe that as a respected
geologist, (de Guzman) tampered with Bre-X's core samples. If
Mike was involved with tampering, to my knowledge this will be
the first time that a professional geologist has ever been
implicated in a tampering or salting scam," he said.

Felderhof said his belief there is gold in Busang "is based on
the structure, geology, mineralogy and alteration, as well as my
many years' experience in the Pacific Rim. There are still many
unresolved issues to consider."

He reaffirmed his ignorance of the fraud, saying he still held
Bre-X stock and had encouraged the project's partner, Freeport-
McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. to conduct testing and due diligence.
Freeport later pulled out of Busang.

Felderhof said he was attempting to reschedule an interview
with Bre-X's investigators and would continue to cooperate with
regulators in Canada and the United States in the investigation
of the fraud.