Mysterious ASX-Trades on Bougainville Copper

Mysterious ASX-Trades on Bougainville Copper

The European Shareholders of Bougainville Copper Limited proposed on Friday 10th of august a trading halt for BOC shares to the Sydneybased Australian Stock Exchange and claimed for an official investigation on mysterious trades executed within the last 4 months.

"It began last April," said Axel G. Sturm, the spokesman of the third biggest group of investors in the giant copper, gold and silver mining company, "when suddenly very small orders were executed at the end of the ASX stock market session or even a couple of minutes after the market had closed. These orders had two things in common: they brought down the share price a couple of cents which means 4 percent or more. But these orders never appeared in the order books - neither in the BID nor in the ASK."

Within the last three weeks the trades became the more and more mysterious: nearly daily there were numerous extreme small orders like 2, 4, 6 or 9 shares that were exchanged. These orders too did not appear in the order books. "We are convinced," said Mr Sturm "that there are some gamblers on Bougainville Copper who try to manipulate the market price severely in order to keep the exchange price as low as possible. Therefore we asked the ASX now to bring light into the actual situation. Especially for foreign investors it is not acceptable that such doubtful trading will influence the market prices. This represents a hindrance for foreign investors."

Last May Peter Taylor, CEO of Bougainville Copper Limited, announced on the annual shareholder meeting in Port Moresby (PNG) a 3-years-plan for the reopening of the BCL owned Panguna mine which is considered as one of the biggest copper mines of the world.

ENDS

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