The Marathon men: down and sleazy in Silesia

Marathon Directors Vic Bogacz and John Santich are certainly into playing the piano with all ten fingers.

In addition to continuing with their bid for a mining licence at Arkaroola, they have been busy cultivating their relationship with Primary Resources Ltd, another uranium-copper-gold explorer.

On 20 April 2007, the two companies entered into a joint venture for the further exploration of Primary Resources Warburton project.

This is a series of seven tenements on the WA side of the Western Australian-South Australian border which are prospective for uranium, copper, and gold, as well as having potential for nickel, platinum and diamonds.

The announcement (before the discovery of Marathon’s environmental vandalism in the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary) was greeted with optimism in stock trading chat rooms, one post on HotCopper’s discussion board welcoming Marathon’s involvement because the Primary Resources management “wouldn’t know how to find the ground if it wasn’t for gravity”!

In the meantime, Bogacz and Santich had been beavering away in Poland.

They had established a company called Strzelecki Mining Ltd, a private company in which they were the major shareholders and directors.

Through Strzelecki they established the Silesian-Krakow Metal Mining Company Pty Ltd (SKKGM) as a private company with incorporation in Poland. Bogacz and Santich are its executive directors. On the SKKGM website they say that their presence will “ensure best practice”!! (And this while 22,500 bags of waste were being dumped in shallow pits at Arkaroola!)

Through SKKGM they took out a concession on the Myszkow-Zarki mineral system in southern Poland (where there are molybdenum deposits), did a bit of exploratory drilling on an already well-drilled site (sound familiar?) and claimed that the asset will prove to be “an excellent investment for the Company”.

So excellent that they have sold all the issued capital of Strzelecki, which owns 100% of the Polish project, to Primary Resources Ltd.

A lot of the words on the Primary Resources and SKKGM webistes seem to have been plagiarized from the MTN prospectus. These blokes have made an art form out of speculative ventures that do not come to fruition. About new techniques on old ground. They are reworking old ground, but they are grazing new pastures.

The Primary Resources stock exchange “announcements” are also strikingly similar to some on MTN, right down to the graphics. Bogacz and Santich are behaving like first class shysters, who have learned how to get other real money sources on board, before departing themselves after some lucrative share manipulation. Consider – these two had 2 million Marathon shares issued as “options” at 20 cents. In July 07 those shares traded at $6 plus. Both have sold parcels of these shares. Even now, when the shares are around $1:40, a twenty cent option (about 18,600 traded last week 15 Feb) provides good pin money and a first class airfare to bring Polish money on board. Net profit of $22,320 to be exact on what is a very small parcel – don’t scare the hens.

The real problem is that two serious investors got taken in – China’s CITIC and Queensland’s Talbot. Now they are intent on trying to get some of their money back. It cost them $6 a share to buy in, and they went in in a big way. Love to hear what they really think.

At the time of the Polish announcement, it was stated that “Two of the major shareholders and Directors of Strzelecki, Dr John Santich and Dr Vic Bogacz – who have extensive experience in Poland’s resources sector and who are Executive Directors of Mt Gee uranium project owner, Marathon Resources – will join the Primary Resources Board.” (Dec 19, 2007).

Well according to the Primary Resources website, at least of today, February 22, 2008, there’s no sign of them on the Board.

Maybe Primary has told them to lie low and wait till the Arkaroola dust has settled.