October 23, 2018 Originally Posted

I received a telephone call about three years ago that caused me to embark upon the path of creating Phoenix Mining Group. I was told over decades that my friend had become quite an expert on the refining and production of precious metals, and that he had built, owned, and operated several precious metals refineries during the time that we had been separated. I was told that he needed to see me in Arizona, and that he had a project that he could not trust to any other party to handle. It was so large, and so profitable, that he needed my assistance to bring this project to critical mass.

On hearing this, I embarked on a journey to Arizona, to see what my friend had developed, and over several weeks of working with the refinery, and producing doré bars of silver, gold, platinum and palladium, which I was assured contained massive amounts of gain metals from the production, I became a partner in the venture, and traveled to Washington State to deal with the owner of the mine, and to bring back the initial production quantity of ore for refining.

While it is human nature to try to put our best foot forward, it is our belief that truth is a sacred trust, and to not tell of our foibles and mistakes is an error of omission, that might in the right circumstances help others to not suffer the same fate.  In this way, sharing our story may have the beneficial effect of saving at least one client from the following nightmare that almost put us out of business.

Choosing the right business partners is essential to maintaining a happy and successful equilibrium. In the mining industry, this is more true than in any other. It does not matter how long one knows the partner, as there are an equal or higher number of charlatans to honest operators, and there are hundreds of ways to be cheated along the way.

This is not to say that honest and decent partners cannot be found, merely that the luster and lure of precious metals brings out a financial fever which is not limited to the mining partner actually doing the hard work, therefore, fiscal safety and sanity must be protected against in every step of the operation from testing, collection, assay, leach efficiency evaluations, processing, production, as well as cost accounting.

37 years ago, I met a man who became a close personal friend. In fact, I chose this gentleman to become the best man at my wedding. Over the last 25 or 30 years, we had drifted a bit, and while I still considered him a friend and trusted associate, we were on different paths, and thus not as close as the memories from my youth.

Back to Arizona, we worked for months to prepare, treat, and concentrate the ore, being told that we had at least 2.4 ozs of gold, 1.3 ozs of platinum, some palladium, and 82 ounces of silver per ton. The haul, according to our refinery partner would have been a minimum of $250,000 for the 34 days of collection. 

In the final analysis, my friend had lied to us throughout the ordeal, test results were faked, and we eventually needed to leave the ore un-produced due to lack of value.  I share this story not only to commemorate the toughest physical work I have ever done, but in homage to all miners everywhere, who seek to bring the wealth from the earth that is bestowed upon the world, and claim it for themselves and their families.

As we have done the hard work ourselves, we are not armchair miners, and we learned firsthand the lesson that even one’s closest associates can lead one astray in this line of work, for their sole benefit.  This finding of final truth cost my company over $225,000 and benefited my friend with a newly enhanced facility from which he continues to operate, never giving us a chance, by telling us the simple truth that the ore had no gold, and that the emperor had no clothes. As I said in the title to this piece, we were Screwed, Blued, and Tattooed.

Had this been the end of the story, it would have been a nightmare, but in spending the year plus on the endeavor, we met and befriended many industry experts and learned enough of the lessons necessary to help others to prevent such a disaster.  More importantly, the relationships we had forged, and trust we had built led to our acceptance as a Bullion Account holder with one of our countries finest mining doré processing facilities. Our joint knowledge of the industry, coupled with Dr. Khosrovi’s banking history gives Phoenix Mining Group the wisdom necessary to assist partners from around the world, providing safe and sane ways of insuring their mining operations remain on target and producing valuable ore.

Today, Phoenix Mining Group works with mining concerns and cooperatives in Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Chile, Columbia and Bolivia. We are continuing operations in Ghana that were started years past through our General Counsel, Amir Farhad Khosrovi, and developing our cooperatives for the native miners from Mali, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Niger, and Burkina Faso.

Our other target is to reach, trade with, assist and support small mining operations that work with indigenous populations. We provide a banking system approved, Basel V Treaty following process that has been endorsed by the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States, and the Central Bank of virtually every country.

Due to our process, we enjoy the benefit of “guaranteed sale” provisions for all miners, mining cooperatives, and countries who wish to liquidate some of their holdings, and legally have the assets wired to any bank of the owner around the world. Phoenix Mining Group can also assist with equipment purchase and importation, where we obtain and provide a fair price to the owners and workers, and aid them in improving and developing their organization.

We thank you for a relatively long read, but if the road we have traveled can help others to avoid our prior mistakes, and take advantage of our knowledge, placement, and credibility, it is more than worth it.

If you have any questions, we can be reached here. Phoenix is enabled by our NGO status to deal with any company, cooperative, or government directly, so we are truly here to help and benefit your life.  Whether you wish to buy, sell, or trade some of your gold holdings for the benefit of your people, or learn more about our Banking System approved Hi-Yield Trading Accounts, we are available and willing to meet. 

Should you have a need to transact precious metals, precious stones, or other mining business, such as lithium or cobalt, we are a knowledgeable and discrete resource, and we have the ability to properly and legally transact that business in conjunction with the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States and the Central Bank of your country.