SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

     Litigation Release No.   15758  / May 28, 1998


     UNITED STATES v. ROBERT G. WEEKS AND DAVID A. HESTERMAN (D. Utah,
     2:98CR0728S)

     The Securities and Exchange Commission and the United States Attorney for
     the District of Utah announced the filing late yesterday of a criminal
     indictment charging two men from Salt Lake City, Utah with three counts of
     securities fraud in connection with sales of stock in PanWorld Minerals
     International, Inc.  The indictment filed in the United States District
     Court for the District of Utah charges Robert G. Weeks and David A.
     Hesterman, PanWorld s then president and consultant, with failing to tell
     PanWorld s auditor during the 1992 audit that the company s principal
     asset, the Las Rosas mine in Chile, was overvalued at $3,473,000 for
     several reasons.  It is alleged that Weeks and Hesterman failed to tell the
     auditor that the mine could not be operated at a profit, that they had
     failed to deliver 3 million shares of preferred stock in payment for the
     mine, and that they had arbitrarily valued the preferred stock at $1 per
     share.  The indictment also charges Weeks and Hesterman with making similar
     false statements in PanWorld s 1992 annual report filed with the SEC about
     Las Rosas and failing to disclose that the Europa Mill, which processed ore
     from the mine, had been repossessed.  The indictment also charges Weeks and
     Hesterman with making false statements in PanWorld s March 1993 quarterly
     report with the SEC by including the Washington Gulch placer mine located
     in Montana as an asset worth approximately $5.5 million, when in fact the
     company did not own Washington Gulch.  Weeks and Hesterman also failed to
     disclose Hesterman s 1984 criminal conviction for securities fraud.























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