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Farewell to rock star who blew the whistle on mining’s biggest scandal

The Australian Financial Review (AFR) •
October 27, 2026 • 06:00 PM
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Dodgy explorers scammed $C6 billion out of investors by claiming to have found the world’s biggest gold deposit. But they couldn’t fool Roger Townend.

Farewell to rock star who blew the whistle on mining’s biggest scandal

About 92 minutes into the Matthew McConaughey film Gold, the scriptwriters should have included a small cameo for Roger Townend.

Released in 2016, the film is loosely based on the infamous Canadian mineral explorer Bre-X, which enacted a $C6 billion fraud upon investors between 1996 and 1997 by claiming to have found the world’s biggest gold deposit in the Indonesian jungle.

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