Latest atrticle by D. Stewart Armstrong Golden Phoenix: Transitioning
GPXM is a company in transition. Gold and moly is an awsome combination. Extract from the article: Conclusion
When I first wrote about GPXM it was a completely different company—different in a myriad of ways. We thought that the markets were going to be friendlier, the progress was going to be faster, and the money was going to flow more easily. I don't think the company believed there was going to be as many skeletons falling out of the closet as they eventually discovered. I think some of the key people down in the mine were perhaps a bit overly optimistic. To be a miner, I think you have to be optimistic—almost overly optimistic. It just goes with the territory and such is life in the fast line.
When I first wrote about GPXM several years ago, it was like a company coming out of a bad marriage. Those skeletons were not only falling out of the closet, they were falling out of the desks, the water cooler and even from the different parts of the mine.
It was going to take time to recover and it was going to take time to rebuild the trust with the shareholders. I kept in touch with Rob Martin, who is currently the President and with the CEO, David Caldwell, for all those many months because I always appreciated their goals and their perspectives. I especially connected with Rob Martin and his work ethic. I also kept in touch with a few other key players in the company and I became convinced that they were going to turn the corner and make a success out of this company. I would suggest that they are well on their way.
If there is one thing that I want you to take away from this article, it is this. I believe that GPXM has successfully navigated those first violent storms and choppy waters-- they have been made a successful transition from survival mode to “profitable company mode”. They’ve accomplished this is a very short period of time, relatively speaking vis a vis the junior mining industry. Where they go from here is anyone’s guess, but given where they’ve come from, I have to think it will be a positive experience.
I’ve never quite seen anything like it. Rob and his staff literally built a web site http://www.golden-phoenix.com which documented the progress of the company on a step by step basis. It was like time lapse photography. We saw the pad of the mill being bulldozed, ponds being created, concrete being poured and we saw the steel girders being erected. Why we even saw Ken Ripley, their previous CEO, up on a ladder with his tool belt on. The motivation behind all of this documentation was to show the world that work was being done—real work and progressive movement on the project.
Transitions don’t take overnight. But what we’ve been witnessing is something that very few junior mining companies pull off. We’ve seen a company being built, reconstructed, and developed right before our very eyes. We’ve seen a company that had nothing with which to begin (except a load of debt) and create something out of virtually nothing. And it has really been done in record time, all things considered. People bemoan the costs—but how do you build a company and mine minerals without expenses? I don’t see a lot of fluff in their statements?
The posse has turned into a bona fide group of knowledgeable businessmen. Yes, it has been a rocky road and there have been bumps and bruises along the way. But they are now a molybdenum producing company with cash flow in the millions of dollars.
In many ways this is nothing short of a miracle considering what they had to work with. I have to bring it back to Ken Ripley for just a second because he was a guy who was supposed to come in for a few months to help the company get back on track. He stayed for two years, away from his family, and literally helped build the infrastructure with his bare hands. I remember talking with the guys over the years and at some points they were working all day and coming home to the comforts of an un-insulated trailer in the middle of a cold windy Nevada winter. What fun!
Rob Martin eventually had to move from Hawaii to Nevada and endured the same kind of hardships for a year or so until he finally got settled into some reasonable digs. David Caldwell literally drove his truck into the ground making the trip from his home in Elko to Reno and back. Ladies and gentlemen, that's what I call dedication. When you live it, read it, build it, and even finance it, you know it. These people know molybdenum and “moly” is going to be a very valuable asset for countries developing their infrastructure. Gold is next and that is going to be some awesome combination -”Moly” and gold......etc.
SPARKS, Nev., Jan 07, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- Golden Phoenix Minerals, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: GPXM) is pleased to announce the appointment of Joan Y. Brown to its Board of Directors, effective January 1, 2008. Ms. Brown has assumed the board seat occupied by Jeffrey Tissier, who is stepping down for personal reasons after playing a key role in the successful restructuring of Golden Phoenix over the last three years.
Ms. Brown was the Senior Manager for the Regulatory Practice Group at Dale Matheson Carr-Hilton Labonte LLP, a chartered accounting firm headquartered in Vancouver, Canada. Ms. Brown reviewed engagements and directed audits for Canadian and U.S. public companies, with an emphasis on the mining sector. As part of her duties, Ms. Brown advised corporate clients and audit committees on accounting, regulatory reporting and internal control practices, and assisted with mergers, acquisitions and public listings. Ms. Brown received her degree in Business Administration from Simon Fraser University, and is a Chartered Accountant in Canada and a Registered Certified Public Accountant licensed in the State of Illinois.
In addition to her core duties as Director for Golden Phoenix, Ms. Brown has been named Chairperson of the Audit Committee. In this capacity, she will be working closely with Mr. Tissier, who will continue on as Advisor to the Board to assure a smooth transition through completion and filing of the 2007 year-end financials.
Commenting on the appointment, Golden Phoenix CEO David Caldwell, stated, "We are very pleased to have a person of Joan Brown's talent, experience and energy joining our Board. Joan's knowledge of financial practices for resource companies such as ours, coupled with her background in Canadian mergers and acquisitions, brings a new dimension to our Company. As we navigate through the last steps of our restructuring and bring the Company to a listing on a senior Canadian exchange, Joan's depth of knowledge will be critical to making a seamless transition and introduction into that market."
Mr. Caldwell continued, "Jeff Tissier has worked tirelessly over the past three years to help guide Golden Phoenix through its successful rebuilding program. He is one of the true warriors of the mining business, and the dedication and personal sacrifice undertaken by Jeff in this work may never be fully realized by the public. On behalf of the Board of Directors and our shareholders, I want to extend our appreciation for his commitment to remain as Advisor to the Board during this transition, and to wish him all the best in his future work and personal commitments."
SPARKS, Nev., Jan 14, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- Golden Phoenix Minerals, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: GPXM) announces that its Technical Services Group has completed staking an additional 210 claims immediately to the south of the Ashdown molybdenum mine, located in Humboldt County, Nevada.
The claims, covering 4,200 acres of federal land, have been filed in the name of Golden Phoenix Minerals, Inc. and adjoin the southern boundary of the 193 claims recently staked by the Ashdown Project LLC. These 210 claims bring the area of mineral rights under the exclusive control of Golden Phoenix to over 6.5 square miles within the Pine Forest Range.
Wayne Colwell, Manager of the Technical Services Group, commented, "Our surface reconnaissance suggests that the potential for molybdenite and gold mineralization continues along trend to the south of the Ashdown Project LLC's land position. All 210 claims staked by Golden Phoenix lie outside the Area of Interest shared with our Ashdown Project LLC partner, Win-Eldrich Mines, Ltd. My technical staff felt it was important to secure the southern extension in order to preserve future exploration and mining options. With the staking completed, we will now address the development of an exploration strategy for these new claims."
The Golden Phoenix claim block covers the continuation of the outcropping quartz vein trend that hosts the Sylvia high-grade molybdenum deposit currently being mined by the Ashdown Project LLC. The new claim block extends several miles to the south where it encompasses the historic Adams gold mine in its entirety.
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