Mining firm Golden Phoenix, formed in 1997, owns molybdenum, gold and silver properties in Nevada and Canada that are in advanced stages of development.

Premier Business Partners:

Assurance Insurance

The task of pulling a company up from financial woes can be difficult and often impossible. But for Golden Phoenix Minerals Inc., the revitalization process has been successful and satisfying, President Robert P. Martin says. “Our turnaround has been quite remarkable,” he declares. “We have been able to affect what I would call a textbook restructuring and rebuilding program.”

The Sparks, Nev.-based mining company was formed in 1997 to capitalize on the decline of precious metal prices and the availability of undervalued mining properties. Today, it owns molybdenum, gold and silver properties in Nevada and Canada that are in advanced stages of development.

A shareholder in Golden Phoenix since 2000, Martin became its director of corporate development three years ago, when it was in the early phases of its restructuring. He explains that prior to his arrival, Golden Phoenix suffered financial difficulties when it attempted to start production on its Mineral Ridge gold and silver mine in Esmeralda County, Nev.

Golden Phoenix unsuccessfully had tried to heap-leach the property. “Historically, it has been a proven grind-and-vat-leach operation,” Martin explains. “The decision to abandon gold recovery methods that had historically yielded over 600,000 ounces from the property in favor of leaching, which was in vogue at the time, put the company into financial extremis. The good news is that most of the gold in the leach pad is still there, awaiting further work.”

Martin, who has extensive experience in company start-ups and turnarounds, was then asked to assist Golden Phoenix.

Golden Phoenix’s revitalization included the implementation of a new management team. Although the company was founded by competent geologists, engineers and miners, “[They often] don’t have the background in the nuts and bolts of business operation,” Martin says.

These new members included Ken Ripley, who directed the initial turnaround, CEO David A. Caldwell, who has 25 years’ experience in the industry and is a geoscientist and exploration geologist, and COO Donald R. Prahl, who has 35 years’ experience in large mine management, to name a few.

The company also hired Kent Aveson as general manager of its Ashdown gold and molybdenum mine in Humboldt County, Nev. So far, “Our turnaround has been quite remarkable,” Martin says. He says Golden Phoenix has retired the majority of its debt and grown its staff from eight employees to nearly 80.

Golden Phoenix also has built and delivered its Ashdown mine to market, and has formed the in-house Technical Services Group, for permitting and mine evaluation, and Exploration Drilling Services, an in-house drilling and exploration department that it will put in the field next month.

However, the company’s work is only just beginning, Martin asserts. “[This year, we’ll show] the markets what we have accomplished, and where we are going,” he adds. “We are a unique junior mining enterprise, with the Ashdown mine in moly production and generating cash flow, and our historical gold producer, Mineral Ridge, about to be drilled. I think 2008 is going to be our year.”

‘What We’re About’
Golden Phoenix focuses on mining opportunities in politically stable and accessible areas, Martin says. “We have yet to show much interest going outside of North America,” he says. “However, given the right combination of opportunities, we are open to it.

"The future is about taking the capability that we have built and applying [it] to the rapid acceleration of both our production capabilities and our exploration capabilities, in order to bring value to our shareholders,” Martin adds. “That’s what we’re about – bringing value to our owners and putting value into our shares.”