MINING MARKET & INVESTMENT NEWS — QUERY — No news is bad news for holder of de-listed shares

It would help if you could tell me what has happened to the following companies: Greater Laurier Uranium Mines (formerly Mont Laurier Uranium Mines), Newfields Minerals (which, at one point, was to be renamed International Kirkland) and Duration Mines.

Johan M. Katz,

Oxted, Surrey, England

The first query is the easiest to answer. Mont Laurier Uranium Mines was reorganized as Great Laurier Uranium Mines in August 1970 in a share-for-share exchange. Great Laurier, which traded on the Montreal Stock Exchange, was exploring for uranium on a property in Lytton and Mitchell twps. in western Quebec but ran short of cash in under two years and ceased activity. The directors were reported to have resigned in 1972, and the company’s charter was cancelled in 1976.

Newfields Minerals was listed on the Vancouver Stock Exchange in 1984 and had gold exploration projects in Ontario and British Columbia. (One of its first directors was ex-NHL centre Phil Esposito.)

It moved on to the Toronto Stock Exchange in 1987, and added a Nasdaq listing in 1988; the company continued to finance its exploration projects by share issues and option conversions. Problems surfaced in 1990 when the company failed to file financial statements and was suspended by both the TSE and Nasdaq. On suspension of trading, Newfields’ share price was 2 cents. The TSE de-listed the company in 1991.

There is no record of Newfields’ charter being cancelled, so the corporate shell presumably does exist.

Lest other readers be confused, we should point out that there was another company with a similar name to Newfields Minerals. Newfield Mines was absorbed into the currently active Jonpol Explorations (jon-t), in a share exchange of one Newfield Mines for two Jonpol.

Duration Mines was chartered in 1980 and began trading on the VSE in 1984. The company had gold exploration properties in the Detour Lake and Terrace Bay areas of northern Ontario, as well as modest interests in producing oil properties.

Duration moved to the TSE in 1986, with considerable expansion in capital, and by 1990 had 10 exploration properties in its stable, though it had divested its oil properties by 1987. By the end of 1988, it was down to less than $300,000 in working capital and was seeking joint-venture partners for its properties.

It didn’t find them fast enough for the TSE, which suspended trading in March 1990 and de-listed Duration a year later. Its last trading price was 3 cents. The corporate shell has not been dissolved.