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The Bre-X Decision - A Must Read for Qualified Persons

By George Wahl, P.Geo.

On July 31st, 2007, Judge Hyrn released his findings in a 594-page decision on the charges laid by the OSC against J. Felderhof. Mr. Felderhof was found innocent on all counts.

Although the case pertains to pre-NI43-101 regulations, much of the evidence presented is highly relevant to current geoscience professional practice. Many issues in Judge Hyrn's findings stimulate further discussion. Some of these are as follows:
  • The role of the expert in the courts - expert to the adversaries or expert to the court?
  • Knowing one's boundary of expertise in giving an expert opinion.
  • Professional's need to practice as much care with their opinions in private email exchanges as they do with formal reports. The contents of all emails and correspondence including internal memos between employees can be and are subpoenaed in a court of law.
  • The appropriateness of changing an expert opinion as further material information comes to light.
  • Given the testimony, would NI43-101 and the QP concept have made any difference as so many highly regarded experts did not notice any red flags during the exploration and advanced evaluation of the Busang project?
  • Do QP's need new tools/approaches to uncover red flags?
  • Could an independent QP given similar circumstances today have uncovered this fraud earlier?
  • What effective investigative measures can a senior corporate geologist acting as a corporate QP take, who has hired experienced unlicensed overseas geologists to run the field exploration programs?
  • Do we need to regulate the professional practice of those foreign unlicensed field managers who QP's rely on to gather data? What measures can we take to ensure ethical behaviour of foreign geoscientists in a foreign jurisdiction?
Field Notes encourages you to read this important document and welcomes your views on these and any other issues. Attached is the report in "pdf" format.

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Field Notes is published by APGO and is edited by Wendy Diaz, P.Geo. If you have comments or wish to contribute material to this newsletter, please contact Wendy Diaz, P.Geo., or Andrea Waldie, P.Geo., Executive Director/Registar.

Copyright 2007, Association of Professional Geoscientists of Ontario (APGO)