ABSTRACT
Based on reported results of exploration, the Bre-X gold deposit in the head waters of the Busang River in Kalimantan was poised to become the biggest deposit of gold ever discovered. By March 1997 the Canadian company Bre-X Minerals Ltd. reported an estimated 200 million-ounce resource (worth about US$ 100 billion assuming a gold price of US$ 500 per ounce). The deposit immediately attracted the interest of the then President Soeharto of Indonesia plus several large mining companies. The mining company Freeport started its own due-diligence drilling, and on March 26, 1997 Freeport reported that its due-diligence cores, drilled only a meter and a half from Bre-X’s, showed ‘insignifi cant amounts of gold.’ The next day Bre-X stock lost almost all its value. Industry journalists soon found evidence that the Busang ore samples had been ‘salted’ with gold dust.
