I was asked today about my experience of Aurelian of which Colin Benner was a director, here is my reply.

I was not affected as I came to the Aurelian party too late. Thank goodness. I monitored ARU for several months and posted as and when I felt it was necessary.

Basically, Aurelian had found a very large lump of gold, Kinross personnel were already monitoring them and had people in situ. Tye Burt, CEO of Kinross totally out flanked the ARU weak board and offered them personally an attractive deal. They accepted and sold their principles for money, relevent drilling results not reported, etc., etc..

The Aurelian shareholders received in the region of $5 per share instead of $60. Aurelian was sold for a tenth of its value and the Aurelian directors did very well indeed out of the sale.

Some of the Aurelian retail shareholders had been holding shares for some years. Kinross, monetarilywise, have done well but this episode will come back to haunt them as they have proved that they do not consider retail shareholders as relevent. I believe that the same goes for Colin Benner.