Golden Hope Mines

Golden Hope Mines Ltd (C:GNH)
Shares Issued 107,889,954
Wednesday December 29 2010 - Street Wire

by Stockwatch Business Reporter

There is a stock market aphorism about company news: Good news comes by air express, bad news comes by slow freight. It is especially true of drill results, assays in particular. Which brings us to the subject of Golden Hope Mines Ltd., and the slow freight that makes its way from the assay lab in Ancaster, Ont., to the company's Bellechasse project near Ste. Justine, Que.

The company has yet to release drill results from 30 of the 66 holes comprising the 16,000 metres it began drilling on April 13, 2010, at its Bellechasse project in the Beauce area of Quebec. On Dec. 17 the company said it had finished the 2010 drill program, though it did not say when it finished. In April, eight months ago as the program began, president Frank Candido said, "Our accumulated knowledge of both the property and the deposit permits us to target our program and deliver results much more efficiently." The stock was 20 cents.

Investors first expected Golden Hope's assays by the beginning of June, because Mr. Candido told them on May 18 that June would be when they should start "trickling in." He even provided a schedule, saying, "Usually there is about a four-week delay between the time that you get them in and the time that you see the results." When June arrived, Golden Hope still had no assays, but Mr. Candido had something just as good for investors: strong encouragement. He said the company "intersected quartz veining in every hole, with some holes showing visible gold as well." The resulting expectations helped push the stock up to 24 cents by June 3, a happy development for all shareholders, especially president Candido.

Mr. Candido joined Golden Hope as a director on Sept. 27, 2007, 16 months after acquiring his first 136,364 shares at a deemed price of 11 cents. He earned these shares as a finder's fee for a $150,000 financing. Then, between Jan. 11, 2008, and Oct. 20, 2009, he bought 900,000 more shares at prices ranging from five cents to 29 cents, but at an average of 12 cents. He was not the only one to acquire stock at low prices. Fully 43.39 million shares flew out of the treasury in seven private placements between July 23, 2008, and June 7, 2010, at prices ranging from six cents to 20 cents. Most of the subscribers remain unknown, thanks to regulators who no longer require companies to reveal their financial backers. For example, at seven cents, three secret investors acquired a total of 11.38 million shares.

By June 18, though there were still no assays back from the lab, the news was getting better. On that day Mr. Candido saw more visible gold in five new drill holes and shared his pleasing observations with investors. More encouraging still, he said only 15 per cent to 20 per cent of the contained gold was in grains large enough to be seen with the naked eye. The bullish implications of this visible gold news helped push the stock up to 58 cents on volume of 2.2 million shares. As for assays, the company said 1,500 samples had by then been sent to Activation Laboratories in Ancaster, Ont. Ancaster is 957 kilometres from Ste. Justine, Que., a drive that takes about 11 hours. It had been two months since drilling began.

The company and its president spent June writing eight more boosterish but assay-less press releases, which propelled the stock up to a 72-cent high by June 28. Then, the company took a three-week break to assess "data gathered to date." Drilling resumed on July 12, and by August the company decided to add another 5,000 metres of drilling. If assays back from Ancaster led to that decision, the company did not share them with investors. Its drill program was now up to 14,250 metres. With still no assays, old investors were growing restless. By Aug. 18, and still no assays after four months, Golden Hope's stock had backed off to 58 cents.

The company turned up its golden promotion again in September, this time with the help of stock touts Jay Taylor and James West. Golden Hope would pay Mr. West for his kind words. Five thousand dollars a month evidently inspires Mr. West to tell his followers something like, "I've practically begged company president Frank Candido to engage me as an IR consultant because I truly believe that the size potential of this still under-the-radar company has gone ballistic." President Candido also had some bullish words about the Beauce visible nuggets on CBC Radio's Sunday show. These promotional efforts pushed the stock up to a new intraday high of 98 cents on Sept. 21, but still no assays -- now after five months.

The next day, on Sept. 22, investors finally received what they had been expecting for about 17 of the past 23 weeks: drill results from the first 10 holes. The best result, 34 metres of 3.68 grams per tonne gold, failed to live up to the visible-gold expectations and the stock tumbled to 68 cents. Golden Hope explained that "assays cannot be taken as reliable estimators of grade" because of the project's nugget effect.

More assays were supposed to be on their way, but corporate communications director Sasha Asgary said, by way of explaining the months-long delay, that the lab was overwhelmed by over 5,000 Golden Hope samples. Perhaps, but according to Activation Labs, its busiest times of year are the summer and the fall, when assay turnaround might take as long as four weeks, although, on average it is 14 days. ALS Chemex Labs Ltd. in Vancouver also tries to have fire assays back within 14 days, busy or not.

Recently, Mr. Asgary has been telling investors the delay is really a positive development. You see, all Golden Hope's samples are fire assayed but "when we get values over a certain number, we send those samples back for full pulp metallic assaying which will catch the larger nuggets [visible gold] and give us the results we are looking for." He says for those pulp metallic assays "the turnaround time is doubled or more because those assays go back into the queue."

Activation Labs' turnaround manager was on holidays when a reporter called, but the manager of the company's Thunder Bay lab, Tom Clavet, said it would take "an extra couple days" for metallic pulp assays. ALS Chemex in Vancouver says its metallic assays take about one extra day, but they do cost more. An ALS fire assay costs $11 a sample, while a metallic assay costs $30.

If Golden Hope is sending the 5,000 plus samples back for metallic assays, it could cost as much as $205,000. At Sept. 30, Golden Hope had $2.13-million in working capital. It found some more investors last week. On Dec. 17, it closed a $3.7-million financing of flow-through shares at 53 cents and non-flow-through units at 40 cents.

No insiders have declared buying shares in the latest financing on SEDI. The latest of Mr. Candido's insider trading reports says he took some profits the day after Golden Hope released its assays. On Sept. 23, he sold 522,500 shares at prices ranging from 58 cents to 73 cents. On Sept. 23, director Robert Stocks sold 50,000 of his 206,450 shares at 71 cents. He acquired the shares this summer at prices ranging from 25 cents to 35 cents. Ron Haller and Paul Nichols also took profits, selling 170,000 shares and 32,000 shares, respectively, between 58 cents and 59 cents. Both men acquired their shares by exercising 35-cent stock options. Director William Needham sold 25,000 shares between Oct. 29 and Nov. 24, at prices ranging from 47.3 cents to 50 cents. He acquired the shares on Oct. 29 by exercising a 12-cent stock option.

Mr. Candido may have drummed up some new investors this fall. He took his dog and pony show to Hong Kong, New Orleans and Switzerland, but unfortunately there is no record of what he may have told his audiences about those many metres of delayed assays. The closest he came was a paid tout, written by shareholder Larry Hoover, explaining the project's nuggety effect.

Meanwhile the Golden Hope promo has been continuing in Quebec papers and on French on-line television as investors await assays for their 30 holes. At the 2010 rate of 10 holes every 23 weeks, the last of three remaining batches should arrive in time for Christmas, 2011.