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Quotations (Cont'd) |
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"Reserves of over a million ounces of gold have been discovered, but few, if any, exploration holes have been drilled into the deposit."
(Here's why that statement is generally wrong: The term "reserve" has legal meaning with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and should only be applied when there is a high degree of confidence that the stated grade and tonnage of ore and the total recoverable quantity of gold are known. Usually hundreds of exploration holes are drilled and thousands of samples are assayed before being able to define a reserve of a million ounces of gold.)
"You must use a proprietary or nonstandard technique to assay the ore or extract the metal from the ore."
(Here's why that statement is generally wrong: Standard analytical techniques unquestionably detect ore-grade precious metals in rocks, soils, and waters. Fire assay, neutron activation, inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry, and atomic absorption spectrophotometer are standard techniques that, when properly performed, yield accurate assays of gold in ores.)
Unfortunately, even today such scams continue to occur. In 1997, for example, investors lost about $2 billion when mining-stock prices dropped after it was discovered that an apparent gold deposit in Indonesia was a scam. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
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Quotations (Cont'd) |
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