"Everybody gets excited when Bob Friedland is pumping some stock, whether it makes sense or not, " says Ryan Bennett, principal at Resource Capital Funds, a Denver private equity group, who just returned from Mongolia.

FORBES: The Promoter

That was in 1994, when Friedland was best known by critics as "Toxic Bob, " after another of his ventures, Galactic Resources, tried to develop a gold mine near Summitville, Colorado using heap leaching, an extraction process that dips ore in cyanide to extract gold.

FORBES: Magazine Article

That was in 1994, when Friedland was best known by critics as "Toxic Bob, " after another of his ventures, Galactic Resources, tried to develop a gold mine near Summitville, Colo. using heap leaching, an extraction process that dips ore in cyanide to extract gold.

FORBES: The Promoter