Introduction
Pallas
Resource Corporation is a company founded by William T. Jordan in
1989 after his predecessor corporation, Athena Gold (1985), had been
illegally taken over by Scientologists. (1)
In
Athena, the business plan for the Talapoosa gold mine prospect was very
successful and the discovery of a huge gold deposit was made prior to the entry of
Scientologists. With this background of success, the plan was adopted by
Pallas so as to recoup lost assets and extend the business activities,
the premise being that "the plan wasn't broken and needed no
fixing".
Intent on
capitalizing on their success, Jordan and a few of his loyal Athena
investors managed to regroup despite constant suppressive interferences,
and bought the fully-functional Gooseberry Mine property near Reno,
Nevada, from Asamera Minerals in 1993.
An
opportunity to purchase such an advanced property to get into the gold
mining business was a stroke of good fortune for the company and would
shorten time to reach its corporate goals. Possessing a complete
infrastructure, a huge inventory of tools, supplies, and some residual
reserves of economic grade, this property offered diversity and a wide
scope of opportunities.
The
property was centrally located in the huge 105,000 acre Asamera Western
Nevada Gold Project and was only twelve miles distant from the Talapoosa gold mine discovery. It was secluded yet near urban areas
within easy distance to an experienced labor force and even possessed
on-site reliable grid power.
For a
development stage company listed on the Over-The-Counter Bulletin Board, the Gooseberry properties offered a tremendous blastoff for its
economic development.
(1)
TIME Magazine, 05-06-1991 - Richard Behar
The
Business Plan: April 4, 1994
The
Business Plan for the Gooseberry Mine Project incorporated the
components of the Asamera Sales Agreement and the numerous
understandings therein. Asamera officials assured that all information
required for due diligence had been disclosed and was correct to their
knowledge. Also included was a Reg D Offering Circular duly filed with
the Securities and Exchange Commission and the State of Nevada for
funding. The regulators had demanded and approved the business plan
submitted, one that relied upon Asamera's information, as such was
required for the reclamation bond surety.
Concurrently,
Pallas was fighting "fair game" lawsuits, instigated to act as
a protective shield against any countersuits to rectify the wrongs
perpetrated in the illegal takeover of Athena Gold, in both Vancouver,
B.C., Canada, and in Reno, Nevada, and California. The Reno and
California lawsuits were settled, but efforts would yield an honest
lawyer in Canada, whereby the Canadian lawsuit resulted in a major win
over the Athena network of Scientology operatives within the short
period of eight months. This allowed Pallas to become financially viable
with insignificant debt.
~ Click here
to see a sampling of the business plan.
Clouds
Over Gooseberry
Much
attention was being focused on the reclamation bond component of the
agreement by Asamera and the environmental regulators, which began to
prompt questions. Dating back to the Talapoosa in 1986, Pallas'
long-time trusted professional, John Randall Burke, M.Sc., P.E., was put
in charge of an investigation, whereby he made a startling discovery in
a short period of time. He reported that Asamera's ending costs were as
high as $3,145.00 per ounce and ending gold grade was 0.03 ounce per
ton. This information was in sharp contrast to what Asamera, its lawyer
and management, had purported and constituted major frauds against both
the Nevada Reclamation Bond Pool, as well as Pallas and its investors.
These
misdeeds were reported to Asamera Minerals, the regulators, the Nevada
Attorney General's Offices, and many other parties in an effort to
correct the record, all to no avail.
Pallas, a
development stage company, could ill afford this type deception and
demanded that Asamera assume the cost of the reclamation responsibility
under Pallas' rightful management. After all, who could trust Asamera
anymore? Pallas further insisted that all 34 pieces of
"tagged" equipment that had been pledged as collateral for the
contrived reclamation bond be returned to the company's inventory free
of encumbrance.
"Friendly"
Asamera was now beginning to show its true colors and its connections to
lawyers, regulators, politicians, and cult cronies (even hobos and thieves)
were beginning to be understood. The webmaster discusses a few of the
frauds and the perpetrators involved, that show the extent of corruption
in this wide-ranging Regulatory and Physical Takings.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/regulatory_taking]
A
Review by the Webmaster
Pallas
Resource Corporation owns 560 acres east of Reno, Nevada, known as the Gooseberry
Mine property. Improved land near these 560 acres is now (2005) selling for
prices between $1.95 and $2.75 per square foot. One neighboring property
is used for warehousing and regional distribution by WalMart.
At 43,560
square feet, each Gooseberry acre has a comparative market value of
somewhere between $82 thousand and $119 thousand. The 560 acres
extrapolate to a value range of $45 million to $66 million. This, of
course, represents basic, improved, real estate value only.
The
property is located almost in the middle of a new 102,000 acre
"Tahoe - Reno Industrial Center" (TRIC) which is touted as being
the largest development of its kind in the world. The Gooseberry is
being referred to as the hole in the TRIC doughnut.
Due to
problems caused by frauds perpetrated against Pallas, title to the
Gooseberry was contested by
conspirators. Documentation exists to expose said frauds.
Asamera
Minerals, now owned by Conoco- Phillips, sold 100% of the Gooseberry Mine
to Pallas Resource Corporation according to a written agreement dated
April 16, 1993. Pallas was given to believe that it was purchasing all
of the Gooseberry property; it did so in good faith. Now Martin Family
heirs have come forth claiming they own 50% of the Gooseberry Mine and
that Asamera sold 100% of its 50% ownership. This does not conform to
Asamera's Sales Agreement with Pallas, and thus constitutes a fraud
perpetrated by Asamera. Asamera also misrepresented the quantity,
quality, and value of minerals remaining on the property.
Pallas
was led to believe it was buying a viable mining project. In reality,
Asamera Minerals was selling a spent mine, a reclamation project. These
are two different things. The only reason Pallas allowed a reclamation
bond to be a term of the sales agreement was because of assurances of
mineable gold and silver reserves of economic grade left in place
underground by Asamera.
Furthermore,
Asamera assured Pallas that all information had been disclosed that was
necessary for its due diligence, and one of the former Gooseberry mine
engineers was sitting in attendance.
In June,
1998, five years after the sale, Asamera stated publicly in a Reno Gazette article that it had
"no minable reserves" and was switching to real estate
development of the property.
As can be
imagined, a host of complications tie to the foregoing. Pallas has been
targeted for exploitation ~ even ruination ~ by unscrupulous persons (in
and out of government) and certain corporations working in concert. They
must be brought to justice.
Alan
Coyner, Administrator of the Nevada Division of Minerals, can be fairly
viewed as one of the coordinators of the conspiracy targeting the
destruction of Pallas.
Pallas
Resource Corporation bought the Gooseberry Mine property just east of
Reno in 1993 in good faith. For its part, Asamera Minerals assured that
it had 100% rights to sell and that it was giving Pallas clear title to
its 100% clear title complete with easements, overall access that went
back decades, and all
properties. And, all this was adjacent to Athena's Talapoosa gold mine.
In fact, Pallas could prospect its vast holdings, and if anything was
found, "bring it to us for a possible joint venture."
But, a
title issue would later be incorporated into the Storey County records
that was heretofore unknown. Pallas turned to an acquaintance, Wayne Hage, who recommended that the
services of Ladd Bedford and Mike Van Sant, out-of-state San Francisco
Super Lawyers, would be most capable for this matter. Like Nesbitt in
Canada, they could not be bribed.
Ladd sent
a short note to the Martin family, who responded that they had turned
over all of their property rights to Asamera and owned nothing at the
Gooseberry. Ladd settled this little matter in short order, but the Martins
still remain under the cloud of conspiracy regarding a royalty for no
reserves. This is an issue that Janet Hess, Storey County D.A. at the
time, and now with the Nevada Attorney General's offices, appears to
know a lot about (and is believed to be in the middle of it).
In the
words of Bill Jordan:
Pallas
Resource Corporation bought the Gooseberry Mine Properties from
Asamera Minerals on April 16, 1993, a site located 22 miles east of
Reno, Nevada. The property consists of 560 acres of fee land, all of
which is usable when taking into account Pallas' wind power plans and
other projects. [Maps]
This acreage is centrally located within Asamera's original 105,000
acre Western Nevada Gold Project. The Gooseberry Property contained
the operations of Asamera's former gold and silver mine on 56 acres
with primary mining facilities secured behind chain link fencing.
Following the security practices employed by Asamera and other mining
companies, Pallas was requiring government officials and approved
visitors who sought entry to the properties to have good purpose and
sign in and out providing all required information.
The
mining operations of previous mine operators were on 27 acres composed
of a milling and support complex of extensive infrastructure that
included: office buildings, a fully operational and updated
exploration and metallurgical laboratory, maintenance garage, supply
warehouses, wood working shop, hoist building and head frame servicing
a 1,465 foot deep mine shaft (to usable water), crushing plant, and
grinding system capable of producing material down to minus 400 mesh,
mill, home for security watchman, [home]
steel yard with huge quantities of
un-inventoried materials and used equipment, electrical substation
with excellent distribution throughout the part of the property used
for operations, excellent ingress and egress with easements, water, fully
equipped emergency room with first-aid and medical care capability,
extensive office furniture and engineering equipment, and many other
useful personal and real properties; simply, an extensive hardware
facility where bar-coding was intended. An ideal research facility.
There
were extensive complements of tools, supplies, inventories, equipment
and rolling stock that would form the propagation and servicing of
numerous business projects, such as a hardware outlet, repair and
maintenance garage, landscaping, real estate, cement and rock products,
aggregate, and many other compatible project possibilities, as well as
the aforementioned wind power project and turbine development. There
was enough steel pipe to put 70 acres under greenhouse
conditions.
Under
Asamera's former management, this complex employed up to 128 workers
at peak production, which required an
extensive complement of personal property investment that averaged at
least $40,000 (or more) [show photo]
per employee and its extensive list of
cronies, not including real estate and mine
reserves.
Asamera closed mining operations during a low gold market
but alleged to Pallas through submitted information that residual ores
of economic grade remained and potential values ranged from $25 to $73
millions. This was one of the inducements for Pallas to accept the
reclamation bond, a liability of which Pallas was not the cause.
Asamera's figures were likewise passed onto the Nevada Bond Pool,
which is funded by Nevada miners, but one that is managed by corrupt
Nevada administrators using the pool to protect a very large and well
connected corporation, Conoco-Phillips.
When
Pallas bought the operation, all facilities were working and in fully
functioning condition, and the company had added to and maintained these
useful properties in like manner as it looked forward to Post
Mining Uses that would further enhance investor values. Trips by
shareholders to review the facilities and view firsthand the beginning
gold production was topped off with the occasional barbeques and
gatherings enjoyed by all. [Click here
to view related photos.]
[Thunderstorms
over Gooseberry]
Of the
accounted-for values passed to Pallas in the sales and purchase
agreement were $3,500,000 worth of personal properties. However,
this figure did not include non-inventoried personal properties that
would increase the total value by at least another $1,000,000, nor
does this provide replacement values which would reflect a gross
amount of personal property value worth at least $5,000,000 or more.
This does not include post mining uses or honest, advocate lawyer
evaluations.
In Pallas' Business Plan dated April 4, 1994, the surface
infrastructure was estimated at being worth $6,000,000 and underground
development and equipment was estimated at $4,000,000. This Business
Plan had been required and approved by the Nevada Division of Minerals
(NDOM) for purpose of justifying issuance of the reclamation bond for
the Gooseberry mine property. They wanted to see if Pallas had a
chance at being profitable.
Another
advantage to the Gooseberry is that the power hookup to the facilities
is a two-mile power line that goes from Sierra Pacific's 603 Line to
the company's sub-station within the operational compound. This power
line provides an additional plus for Pallas' intended wind power (and
other projects), and importantly, connects to the nationwide grid.
Four
years before Pallas was incorporated, the current Pallas' management
first entered into the gold mining industry with its acquisition of the
Talapoosa gold and silver mine that it bought in 1985 for its first
company, Athena Gold Corporation, at the very lofty price of
$1,060,000. This was risk-taking at its best since there was only one
drill hole that provided encouragement for a near surface oxide
orebody. Management increased the initial 1,320 acres to just under
10,000 acres with all located on the western Lyon County line
adjoining Storey County and Asamera's Western Gold Project.
In
early 1988 an announcement was made by management to the shareholders
in Athena Gold that a discovery of over 1,000,000 ounces of gold in
the ground had been made. And as management predicted, the Talapoosa
deposit did expand by another 50% and topped out at about 1,556,000 of
proven in-ground ounces, which is still not seen as being the limit.
An exploration geologist can work a lifetime and never make a
discovery of this kind. And, Pallas' associate, J.R. Burke, P.E., who
began working with Athena Gold in 1986, worked up the only plan of
operations in 1987 for this deposit.
But,
there was trouble on the way. Inherited in a secondary funding for
Athena Gold were unsavory characters posing as benign investors.
Unknown to management at the time, these characters turned out to be a
takeover team made up of top-level OT VIII members of the cult of
Scientology, characterized as a criminal organization in Canada,
Australia, and
elsewhere.
The
illegal taking of Athena Gold became the "1st Taking" of
management' [Link
to article by Richard Behar]
properties with the story partially portrayed in a
sub-article "Mining Money In Vancouver" that was included in
Time Magazine's expose of May 6, 1991, entitled "Scientology: Cult of Greed".
But, at the time, the extent of infiltration of this cult in the gold
mining business was not known, and buying the nearby Gooseberry with
its extensive infrastructure was considered to be a perfect fit for
this huge deposit that was seen as advancing the company's long-range
mining and business plans.
Some
time after purchase, Pallas would discover that it had been defrauded
by Asamera Minerals as reserves and ending cost information had been
faked. There were no reserves as ending cost of production at time of
closing the Gooseberry operations were at a deal-killing high of
$3,145.00 per ounce of gold produced. All of Asamera's deceptions and
that of its lawyers and cronies were intended to shield it from its reclamation
responsibilities and effectuate the transfer of a spent mine
reclamation project, not the mining project that Pallas and the Nevada
Bond Pool were led to believe existed.
Pallas
wasn't about to accept this fraud and set about to remedy the
situation by filing a claim against Asamera. Pallas had obtained the
reclamation bond through the Nevada Bond Pool a limit in the amount of
$269,195 and had collateralized it with 34 pieces of equipment
appraised at the time for $500,600. This gave the company the right
to perform the reclamation and was making plans to do so. It was to
the company's advantage as it sought to redeem its equipment and
improve the property simultaneously. Four different Nevada-licensed lawyers were hired
to sue Asamera and make it pay for the reclamation and redeem Pallas'
collateral. Shortly after hiring, Pallas was forced to sever relations
with each one after time and money had been wasted.
Despite
the setback, the company would later turn things around at the
Gooseberry as it began to develop a cash flow from scavenging gold and
silver from surface materials using its in-place carbon circuit and
other equipment. For this, the company pumped water from Sierra
Pacific's containment ponds for two seasons through its 8.5-mile,
5-inch steel pipeline with
plans of stepping up production from surface tailings. This
coincided with its Business Plan, and Pallas was combining reclamation
activities at the same time it stepped up its stripping operation.
There
were four mill tailings deposits that were to be transported and
deposited in eight parallel trenches that had been dug upon the heap.
The heap and various tailings consisted of about 300,000 tons and was
contained on an approved liner. By depositing the mill tailings from
these four deposits upon the heap, this would satisfy reclamation
requirements and also facilitate the leaching of gold and silver from
only these trench areas. As the surface area of the trenches was
confined to a narrow rectangular area, the sprinkling mechanism was
limited to the spraying of one trench at a time and, when finished, it
would be rolled to the next trench all in one motion. In this way, the
entire heap would not be leached as Asamera had done; the envisioned
procedure was compact, efficient, very environment friendly, and
required only three to four employees for part of the year, supervised
by the venerable Mr. Walter Wolf Mercer.
