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L<B>and</B> <B>mine<B> Page 16 of 20 <br /> In addition to its other problems, Galactic had <br /> attracted the interest of the U.S. Securities and <br /> • <br /> Exchange Commission, which questioned the <br /> company's claims about the amount of gold at <br /> Summitville. <br /> Roger Leonard, the mine manager, had taken issue <br /> in 1986 with a press release, signed by Friedland, <br /> that claimed vast, untapped reserves at <br /> Summitville. <br /> Leonard called the press release "misleading" and <br /> "just plain wrong." <br /> He said he voiced his complaints at the time to Ed <br /> Roper, the company's mining expert, and to several <br /> other executives, but not to Friedland. Leonard said <br /> Roper told him to "shut up about this." <br /> A few months later, Leonard was fired. But that <br /> didn't silence the warnings. Other executives and <br /> outside consultants also said the company's claims <br /> could not be substantiated. <br /> That was what the SEC concluded, and the agency • <br /> forced Galactic to alter its claims in literature <br /> circulated to investors. <br /> By December 1991, just over a year before Galactic <br /> declared bankruptcy, the company had recovered <br /> 294,364 ounces of gold at Summitville. That was far <br /> less than the 547,190 ounces predicted in the <br /> business plan Galactic had submitted to the Bank <br /> of America in 1985. <br /> Further, the gold was worth less than predicted <br /> because the market was depressed. <br /> In the late 1980s, gold prices hovered below $400. <br /> Galactic had hoped prices would climb back to the <br /> 1980 level, when gold sold for more than $600 an <br /> ounce. <br /> Prices did rise slightly and the mine broke even in <br /> 1987, but even that "was done with accounting <br /> tricks," Wyman said. <br /> • <br /> Friedland continued to believe the price eventually <br /> http://www.denver-rmn.cominews/0507smmtl.shtml 5/7/00 <br />