I have been asked, and the company has been asked, about any financial arrangements that have been made between Golden Hope Mines Limited and myself, with respect to the report I released last week. The disclosure statement in that report is completely accurate. I made three site visits during my research, and the company was gracious enough to provide for my travel and lodging expenses during two of those three site visits, and for lodging and meals for the other one. Analysts who visit the site obtain similar hospitality from the company. That's it. It seems to surprise people that I did all of that work for free, and distributed it for free, but that's what I have done.
The story behind that goes back to late summer last year. I had been contacted to provide an opinion on whether GNH represented a good investment opportunity, but my DD did not provide me with sufficient information to render an opinion. I was put in touch with Jim Tilsley, and following that call, I began to discuss the opportunity with my friends and associates. If you look at the price/volume chart, you'll see some activity last September, which corresponds the discussions I was having with my friends, after speaking to Mr. Tilsley.
Around about the time of the private placement last December, I started to receive inquiries about what I thought about the prospects for GNH, and from those conversations I put together a cut and paste "report", which I distributed to quickly provide some background for the discussions I was having. By the time of the Freewest payout by Cliffs, I was receiving a high volume of inquiries, and I realized that I should probably put out something a little bit more organized and thorough. If I recall correctly, I asked Frank Candido's permission to create such a report when I was talking to him at PDAC in March.
I soon realized that a site visit would really help me out, so I arranged the first of what would become a series of retail-oriented site visits. I also arranged a visit where I was there alone, except for the geological team, to immerse myself in what I needed to learn before I could even begin to report on it. My original target completion date in May was repeatedly postponed, as I continued to study the project. My final site visit was in August, when I finalized my research, and submitted a draft to Jim Tilsley for review. It still took a few weeks of editing and revisions until I was satisfied with what I had written. I submitted the final draft to the company for a review of the accuracy of the information it contained, and then I released it to everyone. At no time did GNH suggest any content to me, nor did they ask that any part of what I had written be removed. It is entirely the product of my own work. I love what I do, and that report is a labour of my love.
I post here under a photograph of myself, and under my own name. Much of my prior work is proprietary, but some of it was released publicly, and you may be able to find it by googling my name and the keywords "nonylphenol polyethoxylates" or "bisphenol A". Those reports on these specific chemicals of concern were commissioned by the World Wildlife Fund. In 1997, I identified the routes of human exposure to bisphenol A, the endocrine disrupting activity (estrogenic in character), and so on. I find it interesting that only now, thirteen years later, the subject has finally begun to be noticed by the lay press and regulatory bodies. Anyway....
Back to Golden Hope. The other night, I was consulted with respect to the content of the latest news release. I do consider myself an insider, and that does seriously limit my commentary here. Until such time as the company sees fit to discuss in public those subjects which I have discussed in confidence, I cannot comment even in a speculative way, in respect of those specific subjects. There are many other subjects that I can talk about, however. Frank has proposed, in a very preliminary way, that he would like to have me on his payroll. If that should come to pass, it will be immediately disclosed to you all.
Lar
