Polaris Mineral Corporation

Management Profile - What they won't tell you

Roman Shklanka: Chairman and Director

Roman Shklanka was formerly chairman and shareholder of Sutton Resources.

Sutton is responsible for the killing of over 50 people as a result of

their mining activities in Bulyanhulu, Tanzania. Amnesty International

reported that the "men were buried alive when the Canadian mining company

[Sutton] bulldozed smallscale mines ... " to make room for the company's

larger mining activities. Shklanka had a key role in the acquisition of

the Bulyanhulu Project. Later, Sutton was taken over by Barrick Gold.

Shklanka also worked as Vice President of Exploration for Placer Dome,

a company responsible for the biggest manmade environmental disaster in the

history of the Philippines, the "Boac River Disaster". In March 1996, this

atrocity polluted much of the Boac River with 3-4 million tons of tailings,

displaced 20,000 villagers, and poisoned the environment of the people in

the village of Marinduque and other areas. In an entirely separate

incident, Placer Dome dumped mineral tailings directly into Calancan Bay.

Until this time, most of the 15,000 villagers made a living from fishing.

The turbulence caused by continuous surface dumping drove away many species

of fish, and after a while fishing became impossible. Again, in a separate

incident in 1992, a burst dam on the Mogpog River in the Philippines killed

2 children and flooded an entire village. Not surprisingly, Placer Dome has

worked together with former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Placer

Dome's offences are not limited to the Philippines: a mine explosion in

1994 at Mount Waruwarii, Papua New Guinea, killed 11 workers - the worst

single mine disaster in the country's history.

Marco Romero: President, CEO and Director

Romero has worked for a long time in the mining industry, including his

position as Senior Vice President for Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. Ivanhoe, formerly

known as Indochina Gold Fields (IGL), was run by Robert "Toxic Bob"

Friedland, one of the most powerful mining tycoons in the world. IGL

operated primarily copper mines in countries where political conflicts over

resources are at its worst (for example in Burma and Indonesia).

Furthermore, IGL is closely linked to Fiji's Emperor Gold Mines which is

itself notorious for its disregard of its workforce, land rights and the

environment.

Romero has been the Executive Director of Eldorado Gold Corporation.

he claims that Eldorado's La Colorada gold mine is a prime example

of sustainable mining. However, a researcher from the University of Texas

at El Paso writes "the cyanide solution pumped onto the leach pads awoke me
... The leach pads cover quite a big area of the property ... The enormous

areas designated for future waste dumps exceeds in a very big scale the

production and mining areas ... There is a big opportunity for improvement

on the environmental area."

Harry Sutherland: Vice president, Finance and CFO

Sutherland worked as CFO at Manhattan Minerals Corp. Manhattan Minerals

is becoming more and more famous in gold extraction in the northwestern

Peruvian Andes. The local population protested strongly against the

intrusion of Manhattan Minerals. Manhattan Minerals has also penetrated

into protected areas in Piura, Peru. Local communities fear the vast

destruction of their agricultural land by the mining companies.

Sutherland has also been the Vice President Finance for Eldorado Gold

Corp., Manager of Finance for Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting and CFO of

Imperial Metals Corp.

Michael Beley: Director

Beley has worked as Vice President and Director of Bema Gold

Corporation. In 1998 Bema Gold, through its subsidiary Yarnell Mining

Company (YMC), proposed to tear down a whole mountain for its gold at

Yarnell, Arizona, involving the sprinkling of 7 million pounds of cyanide

on an area the size of 30 football fields to get the gold. Cyanide is most

widely known as an extremely deadly poison. A nearby retirement community

has resisted these plans.

Beley was also Manager and principal of Manex Mining and exploration

geologist for Phelps Dodge. Phelps is one of the biggest copper mine

multinationals in the world.

Gary Nordin: Director

Nordin is currently Chief Consulting Geologist and a director of the above

mentioned Eldorado Gold Corporation. He also worked for the above mentioned

Bema Gold Corporation.

John Purkis: Director

Purkis used to work for Inmet Mining. Inmet holds 18% of the Ok Tedi

Mine in Papua New Guinea. The Ok Tedi Mine dumps 80,000 tons of

contaminated waste rock and tailings per day into the Ok Tedi and Fly

Rivers. A United Nations Environmental Program report conducted in 1995

identified massive environmental impacts in that area. Stephen D'Esposito,

president of the Mineral Policy Center in Washington, DC, states that "This

is an example of a mine that should never have been built."

Purkis also used to work for GENEL Dominicana, Cyprus Anvil Mining and

is currently Vice President Mine Development for Atna Resources.

References

Amnesty International Annual Report 1997, London, pages 305-7; Dr. Tundu

Antiphas Lissu

Polaris Minerals Corporation

United Nations Report 1996:2; also Placer Dome Inc. 1996:1, 1997:110.

Laquian, 1996. Social Impact Assessment (SIA) of the Marcopper Mine

Tailing Spill in the Boac and Makulapnit River Valley Marinduque Province,

Philippines, 21 October.

United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) 1996. Final Report of the United

Nations Expert Assessment Mission, Marinduque Island, Philippines, 30

September, p.65, 69

Fellizar et al., 1997, Evaluation and assessment of the Calancan Bay

rehabilitation program (CBRP), Final Report

Social Action Commission report, 12 October 1995

Forest Peoples Programme, Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links, World

Rainforest Movement, Undermining the forests: The need to control

transnational mining companies: A Canadian case study, January 2000, page 5

Ibid., page 14

Atu Emberson Bain, Labour and Gold in Fiji, Cambridge University Press, 1994.

www.geo.utep.edu/pub/barud/sonchi_roadlog4.html, Terán, M., Romero, M.,

Faust, W.A., Hernández, S., Giles, D.A., Harrison, C., and Zawada, R.D.,

1999

Environment News Service August 17, 2001

Mine of the Month, by Jeff Berman, National Wildlife Federation, 1998

Forest Peoples Programme et al. 2000, p.21, op. cit.

Hettler and Lehmann, 1995, Environmental Impact of large-scale mining in

Papua New Guinea: mining residue disposal by the Ok Tedi copper-gold mine,

UNEP

Mineral Policy Center, MiningWatch Canada, MineWatch UK, joint press

release, August 11, 1999