Win-Eldrich Mines Limited was incorporated in the 1940s. It originally owned mining claims in the Lac area of Ontario, Canada. These claims were mined out by the 1950s. WEX has operated several small energy and mining projects since then. In the mid 1980s, Reuben Brant acquired control of the company.

With funding from shareholders, in 1987 WEX acquired a joint venture interest in the Ashdown Gold and Molybdenum mine from American Copper & Nickel Company (ACNC), the US subsidiary of International Nickel Company (INCO). ACNC was primarily interested in the molybdenum deposit at Ashdown, but moly prices collapsed and the gold resource was not large enough to interest them. In the mid 1990s WEX bought out ACNC's remaining interest.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s WEX and its partners conducted feasibility studies that indicated the gold resource could be economically developed at a gold price of $400 per ounce. Unfortunately, the price dropped below this level in 1992 and stayed low until 2003, forcing WEX to postpone development. Moly prices also increased in 2003, with the result that management believes that both the gold and moly resources can be economically developed. (see footnote 1)

WEX formed Ashdown Project LLC, a joint venture with Golden Phoenix Minerals (GPM), in 2006 and GPM, as operator, has been producing and selling molybdenum concentrates from Ashdown since December 2006. We anticipate that cash flow from moly operations will be used to develop the gold resource if a revised feasibility study indicates it can be economically developed.

Win-Eldrich is debt free and plans to use cash flow from moly production for development of other projects as soon as feasible.


1Readers are cautioned that WEX has not completed a National Instrument 43-101 compliant economic analysis of the deposit and no assurance can be given as to ultimate profitability.