South Carolina mine sparks mini-gold rush
Romarco Minerals Inc reopened the historic Haile Gold Mine near Kershaw, S.C., this year and expects to pour its first gold bar there in early 2014, Chief Executive Diane Garrett told Reuters this week.Once environmental impact studies and permits are complete, Haile will be the only modern gold mine east of the Mississippi River, Garrett said, and the first since the Kennecott Minerals mine closed in Ridgeway, S.C., in 1999.Based on the proven gold reserves found in samples, the Toronto company estimates it has 3.1 million ounces of gold at Haile. The mine will produce an average of 150,000 ounces of gold a year for five years, according to its website.”It sits on one of the most significant trends of gold in the United States,” Garrett said. “A lot of people had forgotten just how significant the gold production was in this area.”Romarco’s success at finding the gold left at Haile has sparked renewed industry interest in the southeastern United States.The gold is embedded in microscopic flecks in volcanic rock along what geologists call the Carolina Slate Belt, which winds from northern Georgia through the Carolinas and into Virginia.Vancouver’s Revolution Resources Corp said in early October that it had begun drilling at several historic North Carolina gold mine sites along the Slate Belt.Strongbow Exploration Inc, also of Vancouver, said this summer that it had bought mine properties in South Carolina and had begun drilling at North Carolina’s historic Parker Gold Mine.Erin Ventures Inc, another Canadian company, also is prospecting for gold in North Carolina, according to its website.The “unprecedented climb into the stratosphere” for gold prices has spurred the eastern development, said Michael George, gold commodities specialist at the U.S. Geological Survey in Reston, Va.”We may have three or four mines started up in the next 10 to 15 years” in the southeastern United States, he said on Friday.Gold prices this week posted their biggest gain in six weeks, buoyed by optimism about European plans to contain the region’s debt crisis. U.S. gold futures for December delivery were up $14.50 at $1,683 an ounce.LONG TRADITIONGold was first discovered in the United States in 1799 when a 12-year-old boy found a large nugget in a North Carolina creek. The story goes that his family used the nugget as a doorstop until a jeweler bought it for $3.50, said Kenneth Taylor, North Carolina’s chief geologist.”There are hundreds of old gold mines all over North Carolina,” Taylor said. “When the gold rush in California came in (in the 1840s), the experienced miners were here in North Carolina, so they went west.”Gold was first found on the Haile property in South Carolina in 1827. Mining continued off and on into the 1990s.Romarco owns about 10,000 acres that include the 4,200-acre mine site. The company has spent about $350 million on site preparation and hiring and, by the time it produces gold, will have spent about $650 million, said Garrett, the chief executive.”Mining is a capital-intense industry,” said Garrett, whose company also owns two gold exploration sites in North Carolina. “When you look out West, this mine is quite small. Out there you’ve got mines that go for 20 miles and go thousands of feet (meters) deep.”The microscopic gold at Haile will be extracted by crushing tons of rock into dust and using a cyanide solution to separate the gold.The Army Corps of Engineers requires an environmental impact study from Romarco on how it will replace 160 acres of wetlands it plans to destroy.Environmentalists also are concerned about an endangered freshwater mussel, the Carolina heelsplitter, found in creeks near the site.Garrett said the company, which expects to be at Haile for at least 13 years and likely 20, would propose land restoration and creating wetlands to replace those destroyed.The environmental impact study will take about a year and has set back groundbreaking and hiring, she said. The mine has 106 employees, she said, and Romarco expects to hire up to 800 mostly local workers.Kershaw Mayor Wayne Rhodes said the company would have a huge impact on his economically depressed town of about 1,800 people, and he is concerned about the delay in hiring.”People here are begging for jobs,” Rhodes said.
Lehman loses first broker bonus case
* Firm has won four cases to dateBy Ashley LauOct 12 (Reuters) - Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc
suffered its first loss in the firm’s effort to win back
portions of upfront bonuses paid to former brokers, according
to regulatory documents released on Wednesday.Former New York-based broker Jennifer Mitchell does not
have to pay back the bonus she received when she joined Lehman
three years before the investment bank filed for bankruptcy in
September 2008, said a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority
arbitration panel.Lehman has said it is pursuing roughly 50 former brokers,
some of who were hired less than a year before the bankruptcy
filing, to return portions of bonuses they received when hired.
The firm has won four cases and has been awarded nearly $4
million from the four brokers.The payments, often referred to as ‘employee forgivable
loans,’ are paid up-front and structured as loans forgiven over
time, typically a seven-year period. Brokers who leave the
firm, or whose employment is terminated, before the loan term
is over must return part of the payment.”They’re really golden handcuffs,” Mitchell’s lawyer, David
Robbins, said. “Even if you die or become disabled, you owe the
balance.”In the case of Lehman brokers, their employment ended when
the company filed for bankruptcy and Barclays PLC
bought its U.S. brokerage arm.SURPRISE VICTORYRobbins, who has worked as a lawyer in the securities
industry for 35 years, said the decision came as a surprise.
Firms prevail in roughly 95 percent of all such cases, he
said.”I really feel like this one was different,” he said.Robbins said he could not specifically elaborate on the
panel’s decision and FINRA documents did not disclose the
details of the arbitration panel’s decision.In Mitchell’s case, Lehman first requested compensatory
damages totaling $176,000 in interest, costs and attorney’s
fees. The firm later amended the amount to $258,084.12 at the
close of the hearing.New York-based attorney Neil Sussman, a former in-house
attorney at Lehman, represented the firm in the Mitchell case
and in the other four broker bonus cases.Robbins said he found out about the ruling from Sussman.”I was sitting at my desk and he sent me an e-mail
congratulating me,” Robbins said.Lehman declined to comment about the case.
