''Midas'' commentary for November 26, 2000

9:15p EDT Wednesday, November 15, 2000

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

A friend of ours, Dale Schnitzler, has written a
wonderfully supportive letter to Newmont Mining. I'm
attaching it here in the hope that other Newmont
shareholders might send similar letters to the company
and that shareholders of other gold mining companies
might send similar letters to those companies.

One more point .... This week GATA received a generous
contribution via a wire transfer from a bank in
Amsterdam, but the notice we received from our bank did
not identify the donor. I'd be grateful if he could
contact me so I may acknowledge his generosity formally.

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.

* * *

An Open Letter to Newmont Mining

By Dale Schnitzler

As a former larger shareholder and backer of Newmont
Mining I would like some answers from you as to the
reasons for the excessive destruction of shareholder
value at Newmont while on your watch. That is, over
the last 5 years Newmont's stock price has gone from
around $60.00 a share to a little more than $13.00 on
the NYSE close today -- a destruction of wealth of
almost 80 percent.

Now as a seasoned investor of some 25 years, I have
seen many a bear and bull markets, and have owned other
companies before that have declined even more than 80%.
However, I have NEVER owned companies in an industry
such as yours where the CEO's and management teams are
so totally complacent after such a long fall. Further,
from all outward public appearances, Newmont's
management team seems to not only be satisfied with the
company's stock performance, but it appears take
exception to shareholders who are critical of the
company and those same shareholders who have questions
about the shenanigans which are occurring daily in the
gold market.

As I said earlier, having followed financial markets
for more than 25 years, it is CRYSTAL CLEAR to anyone
who is watching that all is not right in the gold
market. Hundreds of thousands of investors and market
participants either believe or know the gold market is
being manipulated, yet the management's at the major
mining companies remained conspicuously silent. My
questions to you below are designed to ascertain
whether you are aware of the ongoing manipulation in
the gold market, and if you are, whether your
management team is part of that manipulation. The
questions I am seeking your answers to are as follow,
and I would appreciate specific answers to these
questions:

1. Have you read the Gold Derivative Banking Crisis
report that GATA personally presented to the speaker of
the House, Denny Hastert? It can be located at
www.GATA.org. A copy was sent to Newmont by GATA
Chairman Bill Murphy. If you didn't read it, why
haven't you? If you did read it and you did not agree
with the VOLUMINOUS amount our evidence that the gold
market is manipulated, please list what you find is
wrong in that document. Specifics please.

2. How do you account for the buildup of gold
derivatives on the books of J.P. Morgan, Chase, and
Deutsche Bank -- banks that GATA has cited as part of
the gold cabal for two years? The derivatives at other
banks like UBS Warburg have not gone up at all. Please
explain your interpretation of this massive explosion
derivative positions.

3. How do you explain the price of gold rising $84
after the Washington Agreement only to come all the way
down again to the same price, all while there is a huge
natural gold supply/demand deficit? My own sources put
the supply deficit at 1,500 tonnes annually. Where is
the gold coming from? Please be specific as to your
beliefs of where all this gold is coming from to
support this deficit.

4. How do you account for the gold price going down
when many hedgers are delivering into their hedges and
reducing gold supply that would have been supplied to
the market? It was recently announced that the big
Australian hedger Sons of Gwalia has delivered into
their forward sales all year (contrary to what the
market had been thinking). Please be specific.

5. How does Newmont account for the fact that gold
always goes down on days when it should go up -- like
today for example, in the midst of a collapsing NASDAQ
and a presidential political crisis? That has been the
case for years. Every single time. How do you account
for the fact that gold has not been allowed to rally
decently for two days in a row for the past seven
months? Not one time. Free markets do NOT trade this
way. Even when the Dow was around 800 back in 1982,
and in a nasty bear market, it NEVER went seven months
without some sort of decent rally. Please explain your
belief as to why gold sells higher overnight the last
three months, only to get slammed every morning in New
York on the opening. And to add insult to injury, the
better the news for gold the harder it gets slammed.
Why is this?

6. Lastly, why do you offer financial and moral support
to anti-gold people and organizations such as Jessica
Cross at the World Gold Council, yet ignore
organizations like GATA, which has tried to help the
mining industry and its shareholders? Why has Newmont
not invited GATA to Colorado to present its findings
and discuss them? If you believe GATA is wrong and does
not deserve the financial and moral support of Newmont,
please explain why, and be specific.

Thank you for your attention and your anticipated
answers to my questions. Although I hold only a few
shares of Newmont -- fewer than 1,500 -- I hope to take
a substantial position in Newmont someday. However, it
may have to wait until Newmont either gets a management
team that has an understanding of the industry, or a
management that isn't involved in manipulating the
price of gold lower for its own ends. Clearly, your
management's behavior regarding the gold market is a
true enigma.

I look forward to written responses to my questions.