Contact: Bill Murphy, GATA Chairman ( 214-522-3411)

RYE, NEW HAMPSHIRE, U.S.A., Monday, Feb. 8, 1999 -- The Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee has formally incorporated itself in Delaware and has begun negotiating with law firms interested in undertaking its lawsuit against the Wall Street investment houses it accuses of illegal collusion to control the price and supply of gold, other commodities, and certain related financial securities.

To finance its lawsuit, the committee also has begun to accept contributions from gold-mining companies, their shareholders, and people who want to defend gold's traditional monetary function.

The announcements were made here today by GATA Committee Chairman Bill Murphy.

Murphy, a financial commentator based in Rye who operates an international financial web site, www.lemetropolecafe.com [1], said response to the committee's formation has been "overwhelming."

"The committee is only 2 weeks old,'' Murphy said, "but we already have received substantial pledges from mining companies and individuals alike and are certain to retain a law firm. So we are notifying people who have made pledges that we are prepared to accept their contributions now."

Murphy said contributions should be mailed to Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc., in care of John D. Meyer, Treasurer, Box 885, Great Barrington, Mass. 01230.

"We believe that our cause is a noble one -- the creation of a free and transparent market in gold -- and that all who assist it will be rewarded in some way if price fixing is defeated," Murphy continued. "If they work in the gold-mining industry or own gold shares or physical metal, they may be rewarded tangibly. And even if they have no special connection to gold, they will be rewarded by the restoration of the crucial restraint gold always has applied against irresponsible currency policies throughout the world.

"We believe that transparency in the gold market can be increased by publicizing the dangerous growth in speculative short positions taken by the Wall Street investment houses with borrowed or 'leased' gold. We believe that this speculative short position now exceeds 3,000 tons, about 500 tons more than the yearly gold mine production of 2,529 tons. We believe that the investment houses are colluding to suppress the price of gold because their speculative short postions cannot be closed without causing a gold-buying panic.

"We are also going to call the gold-mining industry to task and urge a 'shareholder revolt' against the senior companies that are excessively hedged and themselves helping to suppress the price of gold. Some of these mining companies have unrealized profits of hundreds of millions of dollars in positions that could be closed by buying back their forward gold sales. Those profits could be distributed to shareholders or used to acquire more gold resources.

"We will ask investors to own only the shares of gold producers that have modest hedge positions or no forward sales at all. We will urge investors to sell their shares in the producers that are helping to devastate the gold industry.

"As the collusive shorts are exposed, they will be forced to cover, the price of gold will rise, and mining shareholders will be rewarded for buying the shares of unhedged and less-hedged companies."

Murphy also announced that the GATA committee is developing an internet site to publicize excessive hedging by gold producers. "We want gold fund mangers as well as shareholders to know about excessive hedging," Murphy said.

"Now that we are negotiating with law firms to bring a lawsuit against collusion to suppress the price of gold, no contribution to the GATA committee is too large or too small," Murphy said. "All contributors will receive a written acknowledgement and be placed on the committee's mailing or emailing lists, as they prefer, and be sent progress reports about the committee's work.

"As collateral we can offer only our sincerity and the rightness of our cause. But we believe that this is still America and that one man with the law is a majority. If we can continue to mobilize the gold community, we can change the world.''