Bre-X

Bre-X was a group of companies in Canada. A major part of the group, Bre-X Minerals Ltd. based in Calgary, was involved in a major gold mining scandal when it reported it was sitting on an enormous gold deposit at Busang, Indonesia. Bre-X bought the Busang site in March 1993 and in October 1995 announced significant amounts of gold had been discovered, sending its stock price soaring. Originally a penny stock, its stock price reached a peak at CAD $286.50 in May 1996 on the Toronto Stock Exchange, with a total capitalization of over CAD $6 billion. Bre-X Minerals collapsed in 1997 after the gold samples were found to be a fraud. Busang's gold resource was estimated by Bre-X's independent consulting company, Kilborn Engineering, to be approximately 70,000,000 troy ounces. Reports of resource estimates of up to 200,000,000 troy ounces were never made by Bre-X though the property was described as having this potential by John Felderhof, Bre-X's Vice-President for Exploration, in an interview with Richard Behar of Fortune Magazine. Bre-X's gold resource at Busang was a massive fraud.