History
A failed craft brewer turned silver explorer, then gold explorer, funded for years by insider debt and now handing control to new Libra Lithium leadership.
2007-2009: A brewer leaning on insiders
The company began as Golden West Brewing Company, a craft beer business. From 2007 its finances leaned on insiders. In September 2007 President John Power assigned $225,000 of advances the brewery owed him to two entities, which converted the debt into 300,000 shares of newly authorized Series A Convertible Preferred Stock. In December 2007 the board approved a $350,000 credit facility from four insiders, including Power, convertible into stock at a discount to market.
In June 2008 Golden West agreed to buy a majority stake in Fish Brewing Company of Olympia, Washington, but it needed other sellers to reach 51% ownership by June 30. The deal was rescinded in July. In January 2009 the brewing subsidiary borrowed $200,000 through a 6% convertible debenture secured on nearly all its assets. In February it moved its beer trademarks into a new subsidiary, handed brewing to Mendocino Brewing, and shut its own Chico brewery. In June, outside counsel Clifford Neuman converted $100,000 of fees and a debenture into 2.5 million shares at a 20% discount to market.
2010-2015: Silver at Langtry
In January 2010 the company abandoned brewing. A new subsidiary, Athena Minerals, optioned a 413-acre silver and barite claim block in California's Calico Mining District, where decades-old, unverified estimates suggested about 52 million ounces of silver. Shareholders approved the name Athena Silver Corporation. In February it sold 1,095,000 shares at $0.10 for $109,500. In April 2010 it said its FY2008 and early-2009 accounts could not be relied on, because related-party debt forgiveness had been booked as a gain rather than contributed capital.
In January 2011 Athena sold the dormant brewing subsidiary to Power and investor John Gibbs for $100. They received 2.5 million shares in return for taking on about $1 million of its liabilities. In March 2011 it completed a $607,500 placement of 2,430,000 shares at $0.25. In April 2011 Athena announced assay results for the second major component of its recently completed drilling program in San Bernardino County; the filing itself gave no grades or intercepts.
In May 2012 Athena converted $286,831 of notes and advances into 1,147,324 shares. In July 2012 it formalized an unsecured $1 million Gibbs facility at 5%, convertible at $0.50 a share. Shares on issue rose from about 29.4 million at the end of 2010 to 35.0 million by the end of 2012. The record then shows little until 2016.
2016-2020: Leaving Langtry
In March 2016 Athena replaced its Langtry lease with a new 20-year lease/option, with $130,000 of deferred rent still owed on exercise. The record is otherwise quiet. In April 2020 Athena terminated the lease outright, keeping a conditional 1% royalty on future silver production, contingent on paying off a remaining $100,000 owed under a 2015 royalty-buydown deal with Mobil.
Months later the company turned to gold. In August 2020 it signed a letter of intent with Nubian Resources to option the Excelsior Springs project in Nevada for 50 million Athena shares. A definitive agreement followed in December: 5 million shares for an immediate 10% interest, and 45 million more for the other 90% by the end of 2021.
2021-2025: Gold, a discovery and a change of control
In January 2021 Athena cleared old insider debt. It converted $315,000 of Gibbs advances and $96,500 of Power's accrued fees into 9.1 million shares. It then sold Athena Minerals, the Langtry holder, to Gibbs's TriPower Resources in exchange for wiping out about $2 million owed under the 2012 agreement, keeping a two-year buyback option for $2.6 million. A separate December 2020 option gave Stronghold Silver USA Corp the right to buy 36 Calico-district claims for $1 million by December 2025; the filings do not make clear how that fits with the TriPower sale. Share counts climbed from 36.5 million at the end of 2019 to about 120 million by the end of 2021, reflecting the Nubian share issues and new placements. In June 2021 Athena raised CDN$500,000 from 6,250,000 units at CDN$0.08, its first Canadian-dollar raise.
In January 2022 Athena took full ownership of Excelsior Springs by buying Nubian's project subsidiary for 50 million shares in total, including the 5 million already issued, plus a 1% smelter royalty, with Nubian able to nominate one director. In June 2022 Athena announced assay results for nine of the 11 holes in its phase 1 reverse circulation program at Excelsior Springs; the filing gave no individual intercepts. Follow-up drilling in January 2023 confirmed and extended the DB-23 discovery, and the area was named the Western Slope Zone. In April 2023 Athena closed a CDN$1,015,000 placement of 14,500,000 units at CDN$0.07. In October 2023 samples from the Lida Bell mine target returned 51.4 g/t gold and 509 g/t silver.
In October 2024 Athena agreed to acquire the Laird Lake and Oneman Lake gold projects in Ontario from Libra Lithium, paying in shares of a new British Columbia subsidiary. Libra's David Goodman would become Chairman and Koby Kushner President and CEO, with Power stepping back to Secretary and Director. The board would grow from three to five. Athena also opened a CAD$1,000,000 placement and closed CAD$600,000 of it from 12,000,000 units at CAD$0.05.
In November 2024 Athena filed to redomesticate from Delaware to British Columbia by merging into Nova Athena Gold Corporation. An amendment in January 2025 set the vote for 27 March 2025 and softened the tax conclusion that the new entity should be treated as a U.S. corporation to one the company merely expected. On 6 February 2025 the SEC declared the registration statement effective, with the shareholder vote still ahead.
Written from the 32 story beats below (2007 to 6 Feb 2025), which come from the company's own announcements and filings.