Nostromo Research / Minewatch Asia Pacific
Published by MAC on 2001-05-01
Nostromo Research / Minewatch Asia Pacific
THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM
Mr Robert Friedland goes to Asia
by Roger Moody
In 1994 Robert Friedland set his sights on Asia. If most other mining entrepreneurs had done the same, few observers would have taken much note, and even fewer alarm bells would have rung. When the world's biggest mining company, Rio Tinto (formerly RTZ) announced two years later, that it was doing the same ["Asia-Pacific profile boosted", South-East Asia Mining Letter, May 17 1999] a few chins nodded, but most eyebrows remained horizontal. However, Friedland is not a mining company, although he owns controlling stakes in several of them. Nor is he simply a mine promoter (financier), though he has provided hundreds of millions of dollars of other peoples' money, boosting the fortunes of his dubious projects. He may mix with traders and dine with brokers, but he is not to be found on the stock market floor. While he wheels and deals in millions of shares, he isn't known for playing the derivatives or futures markets.
In fact, Friedland doesn't seem to know much about the workface of mining at all, as his initial comparison of Burma's Monywa minesite with the Nevada desert seems to demonstrate. This naivety is doubtless cultivated, allowing him to blame his worst excesses on others - those "who really should have known".
In a word, our boy Robert is a "phenomenon" - although this is a term which disguises much more than it can possibly reveal. Essentially, this 49 year-old ex-hippy Canadian of US parentage, who has dabbled both in eastern mysticism and magic mushrooms, is a master of secrecy and manipulation - and is still in flight from US law. He has escaped unscathed from situations which would have driven most other exploiters into the ground (or off it). Most worrying, until recently he seemed well on the road to acquiring more bargaining power than any other person on the planet in one of its four most important (and profitable) industries (see footnote 1).