Sec Looks Into Mine Transaction Asks Coeur For Documents Related To Golden Cross

Months before a recent shareholder’s lawsuit was filed in federal court against Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp., the Securities and Exchange Commission had begun an inquiry into the company’s actions at its Golden Cross mine in New Zealand.

Last October, the commission asked the silver and gold mining company for all documents related to the Golden Cross, Coeur spokesman Mitchell Krebs said.

The company answered the request and has not heard from the commission since, he said.

SEC officials would neither confirm nor deny any investigation of Coeur d’Alene Mines.

Earlier this month, a class action lawsuit on behalf of all stockholders was filed in a Denver district court, alleging the company lied about its actions at the New Zealand mine and artificially inflated its stock price.

Only one plaintiff has been listed in the case: Queen Uno Limited Partnership, licensed brokerage house according to its last filing in 1982. One of the nation’s largest class-action law firms, Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach of San Diego, is representing the plaintiff.

Coeur began construction on the 274-acre mine in April 1990, but structural problems with a tailings pond forced the company to announce a shutdown of the mine last December. A tailings pond holds the waste rock and chemicals after the gold and silver have been extracted.

The company announced last July it would write down its entire $53 million investment in Golden Cross. Five days later it filed suit in Idaho federal court against Cyprus Amex, the company that sold the property to Coeur. Coeur alleges in the suit that Cyprus Amex did not tell it of the faulty ground structure at Golden Cross.

On other fronts, Coeur’s plans for its Alaskan Kensington project still are being studied. Gold prices need to be at least $400 an ounce for the project to be feasible, analysts say. Coeur has already invested $108 million in the project. Gold closed at $326 an ounce Friday.

, DataTimes