Las Cristinas, VVV's boondoggleBelow is part of what I originally responded to an article about Las Cristinas on Mineweb by Dorothy Kosich after talking to John Morgan of Vannessa:
"Vannessa "bought" (through a subsidiary) a mining contract from a PDG subsidiary that was in the second one-year extension, that was in default for non-performance, with only two days left to go under the extension back in July of 2001. Placer had been notified of the default well in advance and had, by that time, written off their investment in Venezuela.
Placer Dome neither sought nor received permission to transfer control of the mining contract to Vannessa, a requirement under the terms of the original contract.
The CVG never recognized the "sale" to Vannessa of the PDG subsidiary, and after the expiration of the contract, the CVG gave Placer the statutory 90-day period in which to cure the defaults under the contract. PDG refused to cure the defaults. Only after giving Placer the chance to cure the defaults did the Venezuelan government begin the process to take back the asset for the nation. They completed the cancellation of the Placer contract in 2002.
The so-called "sale" itself turned out to be only one of two classes of voting shares of the Venezuelan PDG subsidiary, with Placer withholding one entire superior class of voting shares, retaining effective control. PDG also kept a back-in right, take-back provisions and a mortgage interest in that transaction, which hardly supports the appearance of an outright sale of the subsidiary to Vannessa. It was not so much a sale as a ruse.
There is a good deal more to the story, but the short version is that Vannessa "bought" a dead deal, a deal in the process of being terminated, for $50 and from that tenuous toehold has tried to gin up trouble for the CVG and Crystallex ever since, misleading the public, some news writers and its shareholders in the process, all with Placer Dome waiting in the wings to take it away from them in the event of an unlikely lottery win by Vannessa."
(End of reprint).
Vannessa shareholders deserve more than a weak legal battle (on behalf of PDG) for all the equity that has been squandered by the management during this historic run-up in gold and gold shares since 2001. Imagine if they had simply concentrated on legitimate projects instead of this $50 lottery ticket and Doug Casey investment letter hype job gone very bad. (Even the lottery ticket is a false hope with PDG ready to take it back in case they hit it.)
Here's a graph with some of the events highlighted.
https://stockcharts.com/def/servlet/SC.web?c=vvv.v,uu[w,a]whclyiay[df][pb28.57!f][vc60][ilc20!la12,26,9][j29326336,y]&listNum=1
Now almost 80 million shares issued and still no production.
What a waste. What a stinking waste.
I hope for the Vannessa shareholders out there that the management comes to their senses and gets something they can actually dig soon. Perhaps the drilling supposed to be underway now in Guyana will cut something worthwhile to offset the massive dilution.
You guys really do deserve better than management has delivered to you since 2001. The market has punished Vannessa's management for its bad judgement and its failure to end what some are calling its "greenmail" play in Venezuela. If it were to stop that madness and concentrate on something worthwhile, it might reward it for that decision IMO.
llccman
PS: Just an observation, this one tends to go down well in advance of bad news. Weeks in advance.