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| THE EMERALD HUNTERS Andy Smith and Bernie Gavery are the two founding partners of True North Gems, Canada's first emerald mine. The emerald deposits are located in the Yukon, 250 kilometres east of Whitehorse at Regal Ridge. The company is in the early exploration stages, and is dependent on investor funds to operate. Many questions need to be answered, such as whether there are enough emeralds to make mining worthwhile, the quality of the emeralds, when the mine will be built, and when commercial sales will begin. Dan Murphy, a government geologist, is cautious and points out that there is a lot of risk in mining ventures. Andy and Bernie convince a million-dollar investor, Dundee Securities, to stick with them and be patient. To maintain Dundee's confidence, they promise that retail sales will begin right away with some of the early samples from the emerald deposits. Continued exploration indicates that the deeper they dig, the better the stones. Then a new precious stone, the blue beryl, is discovered in the same location, and the company holds a press conference to announce the big news and get some free media attention. The shareholders' meeting is approaching, and the two partners work on their presentation to keep investors confident about the future of the company. Market reaction is very important, as they want to keep their stock price rising. At the meeting, Andy predicts "potentially billions of dollars of revenue," but Bernie, more cautious, states that the emerald deposits "look interesting from an economic point of view." The shareholders are extremely interested in seeing the emeralds that have been recovered so far. However, they realize that a return on their investment is uncertain until the gems are sold. To view the selected video, a password is required. Refer to page 125 in your textbook and use the first word appearing in the main text column as both 'username' and 'password' (case-sensitive) when prompted. Click to View "The Emerald Hunters" The free RealPlayer plug-in is required in order to view the videos. If needed, the plug-in can be downloaded from Real's website. QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
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