I attended the PDAC conference in Toronto this week and want to update shareholders of Golden on what I heard and some conclusions I have drawn from discussions with 3 people from Golden plus some comments from another shareholder who has talked to Golden head office this week.I won’t try to make any particular order of the comments gathered.

1.New San Mateo ramp is critical to future increases in mill feed rate and it’s expected to be completed around July 2013.This ramp will allow multiples of the present production rate and will solve a critical issue moving forward, the amount or ore available to mill will no longer be restrained.

2.This will make the mill processing rates the issue going forward.The present processing rate for the Sulphide mill is 340 tpd and the Oxide mill has been successfully run by ECU at over 500 tpd.In my view the sulphide mill processing rate can be easily increased to 450 tpd if the company chooses to and the Oxide mill can reach about 900 tpd if the company chooses too as it was rated for 1000 tpd when created many years ago.Both would require some modifications to reach these levels but this would not be a costly major upgrade.In addition the company is now running a sulphide flotation circuit in front of the Oxide mill as originally planned by prior ECU management that creates a lead/silver con.The company is presently running a combined 500 tpd with the intent to increase to 600 tpd as the year progresses.I see a significant opportunity to increase the processing rates upon the completion of the San Mateo ramp and expect to see a revised plan in the coming months and have pushed this idea. The company is being too conservative in my view but I also understand why as they want to exceed expectations and want to see ramp completion.I have made clear to management they have been too slow and not aggressive enough given they acquired 2 operating mills, a started ramp and a mine already in transition to increase production when they took over post-merger.I don’t wish to rehash the reasons as they have no bearing on the future progress.

3.The recently implemented shift change to two 10 hour shifts has lowered costs and I would argue the shift change to two 10 hour shifts from three 8 hour shifts increases the tonnage sufficient to get to 600 tpd with no additional ore coming from Santa Juana due to the completion of the San Mateo ramp.

4.This raises the issue of feed, of course there are massive amounts of sulphide ores available (tens of millions of tonnes) so with the new ramp capability and shift change there will be no constraints whatsoever to increased sulphide production other than present mill capacity.The Oxide ores are another matter as these are more limited in availability on site ergo they are running what I will refer to as transition ore (muck) which has a little higher degree of sulphides than is ideal for a CIL oxide mill.There are plenty of available stope opportunities with this transition type ore but it does present some issues as ECU management experienced (and dealt with) and recently Golden management experienced with gold recoveries, this is why the circuit has been added to the oxide mill plus the studying of Albion oxidation process to improve gold recoveries.The new ramp should also increase oxide ore access on site.The other option being explored is to access some off-site oxide ore feed as was being explored by ECU management, Golden has been slow getting to this partial solution but is now actively pursuing this strategy to supplement present oxide feed.There are numerous potential sources in the area that were identified by prior ECU management that could be fairly easily accessed.

5.Significant progress has been made on gold recoveries testing and the addition of doubling the Merrill Crowe system should increase gold/silver production.

6.As I stated a few days ago the company would have to be operationally profitable in the last 6 months of the year to make-up for the first 6 months of the year to get to target of $1 million gross margin short on all of 2013.The company assured me this was the case and they expect to be cashflow positive in late Q2 or early Q3 as I had already surmised from their recent 10K filing if they stay on plan.The company fully expects to exceed the published plan but would not provide details but if the ramp is completed in the summer it’s not much of a stretch to see a 20% improvement in the plan and possibly more.

7.Although recent veins status at Chicago has been a little disappointing lately due to some unanticipated vein narrowing, they assure me this is temporary and simply part of the process on continuing to open up Chicago for further mining.The company is very committed to increased exploration going forward and has lost none of the initial high expectations for future success.

8.The company has made it clear they are as concerned as shareholders with the present share price and what they suspect as direct short interest and HFT interventions exacerbating the present weak gold/silver market conditions and their slightly slower plan progress. The company has been encouraged to acknowledge some of these concerns to shareholders and indicate they have explored the above subject and not ignored this ongoing market disruptive trading practises.The company is committed to the 2013 plan as a minimum and sees no barrier to the successful implementation for 2013 which will provide operational profits for Velardena if they exceed the plan only slightly.The company has ample funds on hand for the plan this year and will still be well funded going into 2014.

9.As indicated by the company that they are working on a JV for El Quevar and it wouldn’t surprise me to see some development in this regard in the coming months with a company that is Argentinian based or at the very least committed presently operating assets in Argentina with a view to future growth there.This should prove very positive for Golden going forward.This will leave the company with 40 odd property assets with some of these considered core holdings with serious upside resource potential, 2 operating mills at Velardena with over 400 million ounce silver eq. resource, cashed up for 2013 plan with a reserve of a minimum of $24 million for year end, a strong JV partner for El Quevar to move this very good project forward where I suspect building the resource to over 100 million silver ounces with the new extension discoveries will not be that hard, plus a 50% JV (going to 60%) in San Diego.

None of us ever expected to see this price level for the stock or an almost 2 year consolidation in gold/silver market.As frustrating as it has been and we all know about this subject, this year should lay the ground work for many years of future operational growth with the completion of the San Mateo ramp, mill upgrades, and recovery improvement measures which will get this story back on track after a slower 2012 than hoped.Given the present suppressed share price moving much higher should be not be very difficult if things stay on plan.I would expect the company will exceed the plan with a commensurate increase in share price which could really take off if this gold/silver market environment shifts positively as expected.Timing of course being very difficult to know or see but I will focus on the recent Sinclair commentary for clues.