Well, I was going to expound on the various hoaxes that I know have happened, but I found a site from the State of Arizona that pretty much summarizes what you need to know to evaluate a claim, mine or process.
Remember Bre-X!!!! This was a Canadain company that had supposely found one of the richest gold ore bodies in the world in Indonesia. They had the whole world duped including major investing companies and engineering firms. To this day, no one knows who to blame for the misinformation and salting of samples that lead to the over evaluation of the property. We may never know because of the mysterious death of the head geologiest, who reportedly committed suicide by jumping from a company helicopter. So, remember if it sounds to good to be true it probably is!
