OPPENHEIMER GOLD & SPECIAL MINERALS FUND
Supplement dated August 1, 1997 to the
Prospectus dated October 18, 1996
The Prospectus is changed as follows:
1. This Prospectus Supplement replaces Prospectus Supplement dated
May 1, 1997.
2. The first footnote under the "Shareholder Transaction Expenses"
table on page 3 is replaced with the following:
(1) If you invest $1 million or more ($500,000 or more for
purchases by "Retirement Plans", as defined in "Class A
Contingent Deferred Sales Charge" on page 27) in Class A
shares, you may have to pay a sales charge of up to 1% if
you sell your shares within 12 calendar months (18 months
for shares purchased prior to May 1, 1997) from the end of
the calendar month during which you purchased those shares.
See "How to Buy Shares - Buying Class A Shares", below.
3. The fifth sentence in the sub-section captioned "Who Manages
the Fund " in "A Brief Overview of the Fund " on page 5 is revised
to read as follows:
Effective July 18, 1997, the Fund's portfolio managers, who are
employed by the Manager and are primarily responsible for the
selection of the Fund's securities, are Frank Jennings and
Shanquan Li.
4. The sub-section captioned "Portfolio Manager" in "How the Fund
is Managed-The Manager and Its Affiliates" on page 18 is revised as
follows:
Effective July 18, 1997, the Fund's portfolio managers are
Frank Jennings and Shanquan Li. Messrs. Jennings and Li are
the persons principally responsible for the day-to-day
management of the Fund's portfolio. Mr. Jennings also serves as
an officer and portfolio manager of other Oppenheimer funds,
prior to which he was a Managing Director of Global Equities at
Mitchell Hutchins Asset Management Inc., a subsidiary of
PaineWebber, Inc. Prior to joining the Manager, Mr. Li was a
senior quantitative analyst in the Investment Management Policy
Group of Brown Brothers Harriman. Prior to that, Mr. Li was a
consultant for Acadian Asset Management, Inc.
5. The first and second sentences in "Class A Shares" under
"Classes of Shares" on page 23 is replaced by the following:
If you buy Class A shares, you may pay an initial sales charge
on investments up to $1 million (up to $500,000 for purchases by
"Retirement Plans," as defined in "Class A Contingent Deferred
Sales Charge" on page 27). If you purchase Class A shares as
part of an investment of at least $1 million ($500,000 for
Retirement Plans) in shares of one or more Oppenheimer funds,
you will not pay an initial sales charge, but if you sell any of
those shares within 12 months of buying them (18 months if the
shares were purchased prior to May 1, 1997), you may pay a
contingent deferred sales charge.
6. The following sentence is added to the end of "Which
Class of Shares Should You Choose? - How Does It Affect Payments To
My Broker?" on page 25:
The Distributor may pay additional periodic compensation from
its own resources to securities dealers or financial
institutions based upon the value of shares of the Fund owned by
the dealer or financial institution for its own account or for
its customers.
7. The sub-paragraphs of the section "Buying Class A Shares
- - Class A Contingent Deferred Sales Charge"on page 27 are deleted
and replaced by the following:
Purchases aggregating $1 million or more.
Purchases by a retirement plan qualified under sections
401(a) or 401(k) of the Internal Revenue Code, by a non-qualified deferred
compensation plan (not including Section 457
plans), employee benefit plan, group retirement plan (see "How
to Buy Shares - Retirement Plans" in the Statement of Additional
Information for further details), an employee's 403(b)(7)
custodial plan account, SEP IRA, SARSEP, or SIMPLE plan (all of
these plans are collectively referred to as "Retirement Plans");
that: (1) buys shares costing $500,000 or more or (2) has, at
the time of purchase, 100 or more eligible participants, or (3)
certifies that it projects to have annual plan purchases of
$200,000 or more.
Purchases by an OppenheimerFunds Rollover IRA if the
purchases are made (1) through a broker, dealer, bank or
registered investment adviser that has made special arrangements
with the Distributor for these purchases, or (2) by a direct
rollover of a distribution from a qualified retirement plan if
the administrator of that plan has made special arrangements
with the Distributor for those purchases.
Purchases by a retirement plan qualified under section
401(a) if the retirement plan has total plan assets of $500,000 or
more.
8. The second paragraph of "Buying Class A Shares - Class A
Contingent Deferred Sales Charge" on page 27 is replaced by the
following:
The Distributor pays dealers of record commission on those
purchases in an amount equal to (i) 1.0% for non-Retirement
Plan accounts, and (ii) for Retirement Plan accounts, 1.0% of
the first $2.5 million, plus 0.50% of the next $2.5 million,
plus 0.25% of purchases over $5 million, calculated on a
calendar year basis. That commission will be paid only on
those purchases that were not previously subject to a front-end sales charge
and dealer commission. No sales commission
will be paid to the dealer, broker or financial institution on
sales of Class A shares purchased with the redemption proceeds
of shares of a mutual fund offered as an investment option in
a Retirement Plan in which Oppenheimer funds are also offered
as investment options under a special arrangement with the
Distributor if the purchase occurs more than 30 days after the
addition of the Oppenheimer funds as an investment option to
the Retirement Plan.
9. In the third paragraph of "Buying Class A Shares - Class
A Contingent Deferred Sales Charge" on page 27, the first sentence
is replaced by the following:
If you redeem any of those shares purchased prior to May 1,
1997, within 18 months of the end of the calendar month of
their purchase, a contingent deferred sales charge (called the
"Class A contingent deferred sales charge") may be deducted
from the redemption proceeds. A Class A contingent deferred
sales charge may be deducted from the redemption proceeds of
any of those shares purchased on or after May 1, 1997 that are
redeemed within 12 months of the end of the calendar month of
their purchase.
10. Effective January 1, 1997, the second sentence in the
section captioned "Special Arrangements with Dealers" on page 28 is
deleted.
11. The third sentence of the second paragraph of "Reduced
Sales Charges for Class A Share Purchases - Right of Accumulation"
on page 28 is replaced by the following:
The Distributor will add the value, at current offering price,
of the shares you previously purchased and currently own to the
value of current purchases to determine the sales charge rate
that applies.
12. The seventh subparagraph under the section captioned
"Waivers of Class A Sales Charges - Waivers of Initial and
Contingent Deferred Sales Charges for Certain Purchasers" on page
29 is deleted and replaced with the following subparagraph:
(1) investment advisors and financial planners who
charge an advisory, consulting or other fee for their services
and buy shares for their own accounts or the accounts of their
clients, (2) Retirement Plans and deferred compensation plans
and trusts used to fund those Plans (including, for example,
plans qualified or created under sections 401(a), 403(b) or 457
of the Internal Revenue Code), and "rabbi trusts" that buy
shares for their own accounts, in each case if those purchases
are made through a broker or agent or other financial
intermediary that has made special arrangements with the
Distributor for those purchases; and (3) clients of such
investment advisors or financial planners who buy shares for
their own accounts may also purchase shares without sales charge
but only if their accounts are linked to a master account of
their investment advisor or financial planner on the books and
records of the broker, agent or financial intermediary with
which the Distributor has made such special arrangements (each
of these investors may be charged a fee by the broker, agent or
financial intermediary for purchasing shares).
13. The section captioned "Waivers of Class A Sales Charges -
Waivers of the Class A Contingent Deferred Sales Charge for Certain
Redemptions" on page 30 is replaced by the following:
The Class A contingent deferred sales charge is also
waived if shares that would otherwise be subject to the
contingent deferred sales charge are redeemed in the following
cases:
to make Automatic Withdrawal Plan payments that are
limited annually to no more than 12% of the original account
value;
involuntary redemptions of shares by operation of law
or involuntary redemptions of small accounts (see "Shareholder
Account Rules and Policies," below);
if, at the time of purchase of shares (prior to
May 1, 1997) the dealer agreed in writing to accept the
dealer's portion of the sales commission in installments of
1/18th of the commission per month (and no further commission
will be payable if the shares are redeemed within 18 months of
purchase);
if, at the time of purchase of shares (on or after
May 1, 1997) the dealer agrees in writing to accept the
dealer's portion of the sales commission in installments of
1/12th of the commission per month (and no further commission
will be payable if the shares are redeemed within 12 months of
purchase);
for distributions from a TRAC-2000 401(k) plan
sponsored by the Distributor due to the termination of the
TRAC-2000 program.
for distributions from Retirement Plans, deferred
compensation plans or other employee benefit plans for any of
the following purposes: (1) following the death or disability
(as defined in the Internal Revenue Code) of the participant
or beneficiary (the death or disability must occur after the
participant's account was established); (2) to return excess
contributions; (3) to return contributions made due to a
mistake of fact; (4) hardship withdrawals, as defined in the
plan; (5) under a Qualified Domestic Relations Order, as
defined in the Internal Revenue Code; (6) to meet the minimum
distribution requirements of the Internal Revenue Code; (7) to
establish "substantially equal periodic(1) following the death
or disability (as defined in the Internal Revenue Code) of the
participant or beneficiary (the death or disability must occur
after the participant's account was established); (2) to
return excess contributions; (3) to return contributions made
due to a mistake of fact; (4) hardship withdrawals, as defined
in the plan; (5) under a Qualified Domestic Relations Order,
as defined in the Internal Revenue Code; (6) to meet the
minimum distribution requirements of the Internal Revenue
Code; (7) to establish "substantially equal periodic payments"
as described in Section 72(t) of the Internal Revenue Code;
(8) for retirement distributions or loans to participants or
beneficiaries; (9) separation from service; (10) participant-directed
redemptions to purchase shares of a mutual fund
(other than a fund managed by the Manager or its subsidiary)
offered as an investment option in a Retirement Plan in which
Oppenheimer funds are also offered as investment options under
a special arrangement with the Distributor; or (11) plan
termination or "in-service distributions", if the redemption
proceeds are rolled over directly to an OppenheimerFunds IRA.
for distributions from Retirement Plans having 500
or more eligible participants, except distributions due to
termination of all of the Oppenheimer funds as an investment
option under the Plan; and
for distributions from 401(k) plans sponsored by
broker-dealers that have entered into a special agreement with
the Distributor allowing this waiver.
14. The following sentence is added to the end of the fifth
paragraph in "Distribution and Service Plans for Class B and Class
C Shares" on page 34:
If a dealer has a special agreement with the Distributor, the
Distributor will pay the Class B and Class C service fees and
the asset-based sales charges to the dealer quarterly in lieu
of paying the sales commissions and service fees advance at
the time of purchase.
15. The introductory phrase in the sixth sub-paragraph of
"Waivers for Redemptions of Shares in Certain Cases" in "Waivers of
Class B and Class C Sales Charges" on page 35 is replaced with the
following and a new sub-section (6) is added as follows:
distributions from OppenheimerFunds prototype
401(k) plans and from certain Massachusetts Mutual Life
Insurance Company prototype 401(k) plans . . . (6) for loans
to participants or beneficiaries.
16. The following sub-paragraph is added at the end of
"Waivers for Redemptions of Shares in Certain Cases" in "Waivers of
Class B and Class C Sales Charges" on page 35:
Distributions from 401(k) plans sponsored by
broker-dealers that have entered into a special agreement with
the Distributor allowing this waiver.
17. The section captioned "Special Investor Services" is
revised by adding the following after the sub-section captioned
"PhoneLink" on page 36:
Shareholder Transactions by Fax. Beginning May 30, 1997,
requests for certain account transactions may be sent to the
Transfer Agent by fax (telecopier). Please call 1-800-525-7048 for
information about which transactions are included.
Transaction requests submitted by fax are subject to the same
rules and restrictions as written and telephone requests
described in this Prospectus.
August 1, 1997 PS0410.009
<PAGE>
OPPENHEIMER GOLD & SPECIAL MINERALS FUND
Supplement dated August 1, 1997 to the
Statement of Additional Information dated October 18, 1996
The Statement of Additional Information is amended as follows:
1. The fifth biographical paragraph in the section "How the
Fund is Managed " on page 21 for Diane Sobin is replaced with the
following:
Frank Jennings, Vice President and Portfolio Manager
Vice President of the Manager and an officer of other Oppenhiemer
funds; formerly Managing Director of Global Equities at Mitchell
Hutchins Asset Management, Inc., a subsidiary of PaineWebber Inc.
Shanquan Li, Vice President and Portfolio Manager
Assistant Vice President of the Manager; formerly Senior
Quantitative Analyst in the Investment Management Group of Brown
Brothers Harriman, and a Consultant for Acadian Asset Management,
Inc.
August 1, 1997 PX0410.004
