Leopold mining storm breaks in Australia

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32567, 29 March 1971, Page 20

Leopold mining storm breaks in Australia

(By the Commercial Editor)

Leopold Minerals, N.L. set a record on Australian stock exchanges last week when the company requested the Melbourne Stock Exchange to suspend the shares only an hour and a half after they were first listed.

As the listing fee is believed to be $6OO, the listing cost the company almost $7 a minute.

Leopold hit the limelight when it announced on March 19 that it had struck nickel in the Nullagine area of Western Australia, northeast of the Hamersley range. The company reported that one assay indicated about 5 per cent nickel over a 25ft core length. This was enough for all Australian sportsmen to leap into the market and spark a boom in the shares, and those of the “Nullagine Club” (the companies with prospecting rights nearby). Last Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday - more than 1.3 million of Leopold’s shares changed hands; this was more than a quarter of the company’s capital. The shares, which in February could be bought for 26c, reached a peak of 880 c, but had fallen back to 490 c at the time of the suspension, under the weight of overwhelming selling pressure. Most of the trading was done in Sydney, where the stock exchange last week was back to its casino-like atmosphere. In the excitement and confusion about the Leopold shares, many rumours were circulating already before the suspension.

The exchange said that the suspension was pending the

clarification of the procedures adopted in assaying the cores on which the announcement of the strike was based. Later it was announced that these cores could not be found, and a police investigation had been asked for to retrieve them. During the week-end it was announced that the Perth

police had recovered one ore sample which did not seem to be part of the 25ft core, and later the police said that it had taken possession of six other core samples, which had been given to the Government Analyst for investigation. The premier of Western Australia (Mr J. Tonkin) said his Government was examining the possibility of Government checks on mining assays before public announcements were made.

Before that one of Leopold’s directors, Mr R. Constable, had resigned from the board, after making a field trip to the prospect. He is the brother of the senior partner in the Sydney stockholding firm, Constable and Company, which is believed to have’ been a consistent seller of Leopold stock.

Mr R. Constable is managing director of Supervised Securities, Ltd, which, with associated companies, is believed to own more than half Leopold’s capital. Mr Constable published two letters which he had written to Leopold’s chairman (Mr A. D. Treloar) complaining bitterly that the other directors did not furnish him (Constable) with enough information. Meanwihle the Senate Select Committee on Securities and Exchange announced that it was investigating. Until all the answers to last week’s events emerge many investors will be wondering if Leopold is another Tasminex. In any case, the establishment in Australia of a securities and exchange commission on the United States pattern can only be a matter of time.