LETTER TO THE EDITOR — Busang performances award-worthy

I have always been a sucker for fairy tales, perhaps because I’m a kid at heart and have always wished they were true.

The rags-to-riches story of Bre-X Minerals, the small Canadian company that supposedly hit the motherlode in Indonesia, never caught my fancy. It was too well-rehearsed to be anything other than a heist.

In the beginning, there wasn’t much substance or foundation to Bre-X to get stirred up about. That changed when the company staged its Oscar-worthy performance at Busang.

The star player in this soap opera was the chief geologist. If he had been Canadian, the company would never have pulled the caper off. Once this so-called bonanza was announced, the mining sector would have checked his credentials and past field record.

But since Michael de Guzman was a local lad, there was no need to delve into his resume. Any suggestion of an audit of his credentials would have been considered sour grapes. De Guzman just kept feeding Bre-X and the market with glossy news of this fabled find. Bear in mind that he reported all this razzle-dazzle information without fear of having to substantiate it as there was no Canadian geologist on the property to dispute it. His crew was made up of his drinking buddies.

By this time, the two other players in the story were sitting back, smiling from ear to ear and making millions. Their star performer was performing in concert. They liked what they heard and didn’t care who wrote the lyrics.

They stomped their feet to the beat with the rest of the investment crowd.

De Guzman was basking in glory (and money), and whatever he reported was received by the media as though it was as newsworthy as an amendment to the Constitution.

Investors were flocking to Bre-X like brood mares to Secretariat. The enthusiasm continued at this year’s convention of the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada in Toronto, when Bre-X principals were treated like conquering heroes. The party, however, was about to come to an end.

De Guzman knew his goose was cooked when, upon his return to the Philippines, he was summoned to the property by Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold to explain why there was only a smidgen of gold in the core samples it recovered near his so-called glory hole.

So ends the soap opera and de Guzman? Methinks not. The geologist is probably sitting somewhere with a bar stocked with the necessities. I trust he has enough salt left for his Bloody Marys.

Bud Laporte, North Bay, Ont.