He doesn't look much like Marlon Brando, but a few weeks ago Helix Resources chairman Robert Mosig made an offer Pierpont could not refuse. Robert sauntered up to your correspondent at the South Australian Resources Conference and asked: "How would you like to see Mount Venn? We're about to do the first drilling program there in 30 years."

The invitation was irresistible. Mt Venn may have been lying dormant for one-third of a century, but its name is still etched in letters of fire into the memories of veteran share traders. On January 27, 1970 a day that shall live in infamy on the stockmarkets shares in a company called Tasminex No Liability rocketed from $3 to $96 on the basis of a false report that it had struck nickel at Mt Venn.