Australian Gold Focused GMA Swindles The Government, Investigators

The shares of the Australian focused precious metal company GMA in London stock market heavily dropped over scandal of fake study conducted on Amesmessa gold mine, southern Algeria, alleging it could produce 250 kg a month (3000 kg gold a year), but a counter expertise study concluded that the production capacity of the aforementioned mine is around 20 kg per month.

In fact, international investors lost trust in GMA after discovering that the company’s CEO Douglas Perkins, deceived investors when he stated that Amesmessa mine is the largest gold mine in Africa after the one located in the Congo.

To recall, Mr Perkins said in January 2007 that Amesmessa mine could extract 28.5 g of gold in each ton of earth and rocks, but the truth is that the mines could only extract 3g in a ton.

Outcomes of an investigation on this case, of which Echorouk got a copy, concluded that the former regional director of the National Gold Mine Exploration Company AGNOR, had notified all of former Minister of Mines and Energy, Chakib Khalil, Sonatrach, CEO of AGNOR and the Algerian Foreign Bank that the statement of Mr Perkins is baseless, as the gold production capacity in Tamenrasset is the same discovered by Soviet Union experts in the seventies. The former regional director of AGNOR was ordered to keep silent as not to disrupt the tender AGNOR had already announced to raise the production capacity. 

The investigation concluded that GMA targeted to swindle the government by requesting a $67 million loan from the Algerian Foreign Bank (BEA).

As soon as the loan was attributed, the GMA officials sold the 32 percent stake in AGNOR, and left to the Congo after the production capacity of Amesmessa Gold project dropped to 20 kg per month, rather than allegedly 250 kg, according to the investigation outcomes.