Sergeant quotes Mark Twain's famous saying, that "a mine is a hole in the ground, with a liar standing next to it." Indeed, Sergeant says, audited financial statements show that in fact, billions of dollars have been squandered on "tall gold and uranium stories".
In 2006, for example, London- and Johannesburg-listed Central Rand Gold (CRG) raised £100m (about R1.5bn, at the time) in cash from its initial public offer, based on the undertaking to begin in 2009 gold production at CRG's Burnstone mine, on the edge of the Witwatersrand basin, at an annualised rate of 100000 ounces, which is "forecast to increase to around one million ounces a year by 2012." During 2011, CRG produced "a magnificent 14856 ounces of gold, a fraction of what it once resolutely promised to investors."
In the six years to December 31, 2011 CRG raised cash of $230m from investors. Over that period the directors earned an unbelievable $26.5m in remuneration, "for telling some of the tallest stories in global mining history," The New Age's Barry Sergeant says.
Read the full article on www.thenewage.co.za
