Fraud and financial markets: the 1997 collapse of the junior mining stocks
William O. BrownJr. a and Richard C. K. Burdekin, a
a Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, California, USA
Available online 20 April 2000.
References and further reading may be available for this article. To view references and further reading you must
purchase this article.
Abstract
The Vancouver Composite Index fell by over 25 percent in less than 6 weeks during spring 1997 as the junior mining sector collapsed. We argue that this market collapse was triggered by the failure of Bre-X Minerals when that company’s Indonesian claims, previously believed to contain the world’s largest gold deposit, were shown to be pure fraud. Our event study, based on market returns for the Vancouver Composite Index and for a portfolio of 59 gold stocks, shows the effects of the Bre-X scandal to be both sizeable and significant. There is also some evidence that smaller exploration companies were hardest hit.
Author Keywords: Bre-X; Fraud; Gold
JEL classification codes: G14
Table 1. Size and Geographic Information for Portfolio Firmslegend
Table 2. Abnormal Returns Surrounding Bre-X Event Dateslegend
Table 3. Event Dummies for Various Bre-X Event Windowslegend, legend
Table 4. Event Dummies for Size and Geographic Portfolioslegend