UPDATE 1-Placer relents as Barrick ups offer to $10.4 bln: Bush alert!

[NVMojo]

Barrick Goldstrike does it again and watch out, folks! If you had a problem with the Gibbons/Pombo bill to GIVE our public lands to gold mining companies, well, guess what could be just around the corner now!? Another Bush Family public land give away, like father, like son, like the Carlyle Group! There goes the Western Shoshone culture!

Story 1:

TORONTO, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Placer Dome Inc. (PDG.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) has agreed to be taken over by Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) after the larger gold producer sweetened its bid to $10.4 billion, the Canadian companies said on Thursday.

The higher offer -- raised to $22.50 a share from $20.50 a share -- will be open until Jan. 19.

The acquisition will make Barrick the world's largest gold producer, ahead of Newmont Mining Corp. (NEM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (ANGJ.J: Quote, Profile, Research).

more...

http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=mergersNews&storyID=2005-12-22T155048Z_01_N22340160_RTRIDST_0_MINERALS-BARRICK-PLACER-UPDATE-1.XML

Story 2:

Beat the Press

Saturday, March 1, 2003
E-Mail Article
Printer Friendly Version

Interview by Bruce David For those of us who've long suspected that our democracy is up for sale to the highest bidder, award-winning investigative journalist Greg Palast has uncovered disturbing evidence confirming as much. Palast's exposés of the theft of the 2000 election, the financial ties between the Bush and the Bin Laden families, and how these connections kept the FBI from perhaps preventing the horrific events of 9/11 have thrown fear into the hearts of media pundits. There has been a near-complete news blackout of the explosive findings documented in Palast's book, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. First released in England, where he reports for the BBC and The Guardian, Palast's collection of writings is finally being published in America by Penguin/Plume books with 40% new material. In an exclusive HUSTLER interview, the author discloses the truth on high crimes in high places that the mainstream media is afraid to touch. HUSTLER: Tell us about your new book. I know you've been able to get your groundbreaking exposés published in England and Europe, but, up until now, your stuff has been too controversial for the American media to touch. PALAST: Not a chance in America, until now, thanks to the book. HUSTLER: What kind of material do you have in the book? PALAST: How about this for an example: After Daddy Bush left the White House, he went to work for a company called Barrick Gold Corporation in Canada, something you haven't read in the United States. The first thing he does is pick up a big, fat check and stock options from Barrick Gold Corporation for, essentially, selling them the presidential seal and the presidential Rolodex. And he writes letters to dictators like Suharto, saying, "Give these nice guys gold-mining concessions." HUSTLER: What is Barrick Gold? PALAST: It was founded with money from Adnan Khashoggi, the arms dealer. You may remember that Adnan was the bagman in the guns-for-hostages, Iran-Contra scandal. The sheikh got out, then Bush got in. You have to ask yourself a question: What would a Canadian gold-mining company do with a used president? Well, it turns out that before he left office, Daddy Bush put in motion an expedited process for laying claims to gold in the United States. It allowed Barrick Gold Corporation and a couple of other operators to lay claim to the largest gold mines in America. To stake a claim on $10 billion worth of gold ore, Barrick paid the U.S. Treasury less than $10,000. HUSTLER: I would have gone for that, myself. I could have scraped together $10,000. PALAST: All I can say is that Barrick was very, very grateful for the gold mine. But the public got the shaft, and Daddy Bush got the job. And George W. got the donations. That's the other thing that has been unreported here: People don't realize how much easy squeezy is flowing in. That includes things like parallel spending and soft money and hard money, which, by the way, hasn't ended. You know that our Congress has passed campaign-finance reform, so-called. What they did was eliminate soft money, but they doubled the amount of hard money. It's just Viagra for campaign donations.

more...

http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=181&row=1

And where is the public land that Congressman Jim Gibbons has been chomping at the bit to give away for several years? Land that has been speculated at being the largest gold vein deposit to be explored with the hopes of mining in years! A bigger vein then the Carlin Trend?

http://www.wsdp.org/

and

http://www.minesandcommunities.org/Action/press611.htm

"Resource Investor previously speculated on this possibility in an aricle entitled, “McEwen Looks to Nevada Consolidation.”

According to the article, McEwen reiterated his much publicized belief that the Cortez Trend is the next big thing in gold mining. He also suggested that merger activity was likely in the future of his new company, U.S. Gold Corp."

more..

http://www.resourceinvestor.com/pebble.asp?relid=15282

and most importantly for those who put all their hopes in gold, the Cortez Story:

http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/fox/2005/cortez/part1.html

About 3 years ago, Jim Gibbons floated a bill to basically GIVE this region to Placer Dome so they wouldn't have to deal with EIS's, NEPA, etc. Just like the deal that Barrick got out of Daddy Bush the last year he was President. What happened after Daddy Bush gave our land away to Barrick? Why, he was given a seat on the Barrick Board. Tie that in with the Bush/Carlyle Group and you a very clear picture of what is to come.

Wonder where I can find out how much campaign money Pombo has taken from gold mining companies?

[autorank]

1. "our democracy is up for sale to the highest bidder,"...what a line

And it is. Great article. Recommend.

[NVMojo]

2. and everyone who fought the Pombo land giveaway bill are going

to find out that they are in for a much bigger battle IF the Bush administration even takes public comment on what Barrick will be wanting ...the Cortez Trend ...people do not know how huge this is. Barrick was accused by many of harming gold prices a few years ago when there was a slump by hedging. I think it was that they were accused of "colluding" with central banks to do it and many gold mining companies went under during that time period (mid to late 90s, early 2000) while Barrick and Placer Dome, to a certain extent as they hedged too, were sucking at the gravy trough at a locked in price per ounce for gold.

Story 1:

http://www.speculative-investor.com/new/article130902.html

Story 2:

http://www.minesite.com/storyFull5.php?storySeq=3046

Story 3:

:37p ET Saturday, November 19, 2005

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

As of this hour there doesn't seem to be any comment
from Blanchard & Co. about the settlement of its
anti-trust lawsuit against Barrick Gold, nor any
news reports that aren't based solely on the press
release Barrick distributed yesterday. GATA is
seeking a statement from Blanchard and will convey
it to you as quickly as possible.

Nevertheless, the outline of a settlement of the
Blanchard lawsuit has been apparent for two years
and may have been inevitable for that long as well
-- ever since November 23, 2003, when Barrick
Chairman Peter Munk returned to the podium of the
Gold Investment Summit conference in London to
repudiate his conference-keynoting speech of just
24 hours before, announcing that Barrick would
stop hedging its gold production for 10 years.

Munk was a late substitution at the conference for
Barrick CEO Greg Wilkins, who withdrew, MineWeb
reported, "to attend to some urgent business in
New Orleans" -- home of Blanchard and site of the
U.S. District Court where Blanchard's lawsuit
against Barrick had been filed.

Of course Barrick's extravagant hedging of its gold
production was exactly what the Blanchard lawsuit
complained of -- the device, Blanchard alleged, by
which Barrick and its bullion bank, J.P. Morgan
Chase, were controlling the gold market. This
summer the court ordered Barrick and Blanchard into
settlement negotiations, and perhaps the settlement
gives the force of law to Barrick's pledge to
discontinue hedging for 10 years from November 2003.

That would not require Barrick to close its hedge
positions, and indeed Barrick has done little of
that. But since Barrick, in a motion filed in the
Blanchard case, had acknowledged being the agent
of the central banks in the gold market, a
settlement based on Barrick's cessation of hedging
would require central banks to operate more in the
open in their attempts to contain the gold price,
or at least to find other intermediaries to provide
them with the cover Morgan Chase and Barrick had
been providing.

And that does seem to be what has happened over
the last couple of years. Barrick's hedging has
stopped and hedging by other gold miners has
diminished dramatically, only to be replaced by
increased selling of gold and issuance of gold
derivatives by central banks, actions that are
more clearly on the public record.

These changes have coincided with a growing
recognition in the mining and financial
industries that the gold price has been set not
by ordinary market factors but largely by
central banks -- that gold mine production has
been substantially less than market demand, that
the production gap is growing and has been filled
only by central bank dishoarding of gold reserves,
and that central bank gold reserves are finite,
deliberately overstated, and sure to be exhausted
eventually, perhaps much sooner than the gold
establishment lets on.

You know it all. It's the story GATA has told since
its founding in January 1999, the telling of which
has coincided perfectly with the rise of the gold
price since then. Just a coincidence? Maybe --
after all, the rooster crows and thinks he makes
the sun come up. But let's all keep crowing and
see what happens.

more...

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gata/message/3470

and here ...

www.gata.org

Outside the United States it's really all treason. But
as Harrington's famous epigram goes:

...Treason doth never prosper. What's the reason?
...For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.

There are huge things at play here in the world markets right now. This announcement of this purchase is much bigger than what it may seem on the surface, pardon the pun! And don't think for one minute that Daddy Bush and his money pals aren't hovering on the peripheral ...

[NVMojo]

3. another reason to worry in the WEST, our environment ...

"The other reason and mostly the most correct reason for Mr. Armstrong comments could be that his head is stunk in the sand. In 1998 Barricks mines in Elko and Eureka counties, Nevada released 398 million pounds or 177,000 tonnes of emissions into the environment. Whilst in 2002 Nevada for the third year running was in the top 4 states in the US for toxic emissions. Barricks Goldstrike mine 25 miles, 40km, NW of Carlin was the largest single toxic polluter in the state, releasing 326.5 million pounds or 145760 tonnes of emissions into the environment. Much of the ecological damage that occurs near a mine-site is due to unavoidable natural reactions of the earth during the mining process. So I ask whom do you believe when emissions are concerned; the American Environmental Protection Authority or Mr Armstrong?"

http://www.savelakecowal.org/LAKECOWAL/DOWNLOADS/Hoodwinked%20Part%203%20of%204.htm

Currently, Utah and Idaho are both blaming the mines in Nevada for dumping large, unhealthy levels of mercury downwind or upwind of them ...contaminated fish and wildlife and ...humans ...

[NVMojo]

4. and more to understand what we are dealing with here...Bush/Barrick

Corporate Governance

So who, where and are the main players behind Barrick Gold? Peter Munk Founder of Barrick gold first come to light during the 1960's when he was a central figure in an insider trading scandal which involved him dumping his stock in a stereo-factory, he controlled just before it went bell-up, he was never charged.

Munk then joined up with Adnan Khashoggi in a company involving hotel development, before Adnan put up the cash to buy Barrick in 1983. Adnan Khashoggi was the arms dealer in the Iran-Contra affair, who G.Bush Snr pardoned as one of the last acts in office. In 1996 Khashoggi meet with members of the Bin Laden family who are business partners with the Bush family through a corporation known as the Carlyle group.



Another big player for Barrick is George Bush Snr. Barrick was one of the many contributors to G.W.Bush Snr’s presidential race in 1996, $US100,000 in what you could call a you scratch my back and we’ll scratch yours arrangement. Prior to leaving the White House Mr. Bush put a special procedure through to enable Barrick to use the 1872 Mining Act. This Act is usually associated to small claims however this time it was used to obtain the rights to one of the biggest gold deposits in the world, $10 billion ounces in reserves for just $10,000. Under this legislation gold mining companies can patent claims for $US5 an acre of public lands, pay no royalties on the value of the gold removed and have no federal obligation to clean up any mess.



Bruce Babbitt, Bill Clintons interior secretary called the claim, "the biggest gold heist since the days of Butch Cassidy.



Barrick claimed it had no contact with the president at the time the rule was changed. Despite this claim G.Bush in 1995 was hired to join the International Advisory Board as a Senior Advise despite vowing never to lobby or join a corporate board after leaving office. In 1996 Bush helped convince Suharto, Indonesian leader to give Barrick a gold-mining concession within the country, however this failed. Where Bush was helpful as a member of the Board was with Barricks acquisition of the Bulyahulu mine in Tanzania.



The most of the following information can be found on Greg Palast website. He is a reporter from the Observer and Guardian in the UK. Barrick has sued The Observer and the Guardian newspapers in London for the articles written by Greg Palast, why? Palast has a US website, now since the web is accessible in any country, Barrick was able to use the British libel laws to sue the papers despite the fact it was a US site. The effects of this case has made the Internet an electronic highway of repression plus potentially annulling the US Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence. I will say let you decide but I say “Welcome to GLOBISATION”.

more...

http://www.savelakecowal.org/LAKECOWAL/DOWNLOADS/Hoodwinked%20Part%203%20of%204.htm

[NVMojo]

5. Barrick Gold buys Placer Dome; Goldcorp buys Barrick mine assets

NEW YORK (AP) - Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corp., the world's No. 3 gold producer, agreed on friendly terms to acquire Placer Dome Inc. after raising its offer for the Vancouver gold producer to $10.4 billion, the companies said Thursday.

That deal prompted Vancouver-based gold producer Goldcorp Inc. to buy certain mining assets from Barrick for just under $1.49 billion in cash.

The merger will have a significant impact in Nevada, where both Barrick and Placer Dome have holdings.

In Thursday trading on the New York Stock Exchange, Goldcorp shares rose 94 cents, or 4.8 percent, to close at $20.72; shares of Placer Dome fell 31 cents, or 1.4 percent, to close at $22.34; and shares of Barrick fell 10 cents to close at $27.12.

more...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nevada/2005/dec/22/122210255.html