History
Gold Reserve, built around its Brisas project, beat off a hostile 2008 takeover by Rusoro, then lost Brisas to Venezuela's seizure and faced delisting.
2003-2008: A listed explorer
The record for these years is quiet. On 3 October 2003 the American Stock Exchange certified Gold Reserve's securities for listing, clearing them to begin trading. The company's main asset was the Brisas gold-copper project in Venezuela, and nothing else of major note appears in the disclosures until the end of 2008.
2008-2009: The Rusoro bid
On 15 December 2008 Rusoro Mining launched an unsolicited offer for Gold Reserve: three Rusoro shares for each Gold Reserve share, valued at about $67 million. Rusoro described this as a 140% premium to Gold Reserve's last trading price before the offer. Gold Reserve hired bankers and lawyers and pointed out that Rusoro's financial advisor, Endeavour Financial, also advised Gold Reserve, a conflict it said made the offer improper.
The next day Gold Reserve sued Rusoro and Endeavour in the Ontario Superior Court, seeking an injunction and damages. On 24 December its board amended its shareholder rights plan, a so-called poison pill designed to make hostile takeovers harder, and formed an independent committee. On 30 December the board unanimously recommended that shareholders reject the offer as inadequate for the Brisas project and the company's cash. It filed its injunction motion the following day and extended the deadline before the pill's rights would separate from its shares.
On 14 January 2009 Gold Reserve said it had heard nothing from Venezuela's government about reports of a Rusoro joint venture with the government, called VENRUS, to develop Brisas. Rusoro had disclosed no such deal. By 20 January, even after Rusoro extended its offer, less than 3% of Gold Reserve's shares had been tendered. On 2 February Rusoro asked the Ontario Securities Commission to remove the poison pill.
The contest ended on 10 February. The court granted Gold Reserve an injunction blocking the bid until trial, finding that Rusoro had accessed or benefited from Gold Reserve's confidential information through Endeavour, and ordered the information returned. Rusoro withdrew the same day, which made the commission's hearing unnecessary. The offer formally expired unsuccessfully on 18 February 2009, leaving Gold Reserve independent. The beats do not record a trial outcome.
2009-2013: Losing Brisas
By 2011 Venezuela had seized the Brisas project. On 21 June 2011 NYSE Amex moved to delist Gold Reserve, arguing that without Brisas it no longer qualified as an operating business under exchange standards. Gold Reserve appealed. On 19 August 2011 the exchange's appeals panel sent the case back to staff rather than upholding it, so the stock stayed listed while the company prepared a plan, due 15 September 2011, to show how it would become an operating company again.
The shares on issue rose from 59,043,972 at the end of 2011 to 72,211,473 at the end of 2012 and 75,522,411 at the end of 2013, but the beats do not explain these increases. On 3 April 2013 an exchange filed to remove a class of Gold Reserve's securities from listing.
2014-2025: A quiet record
The disclosures say little about these years. Share counts reached 99,395,048 by the end of 2017 and then held steady through 2020, with no events in the record explaining the changes. On 30 January 2025 Gold Reserve suspended its duty to file periodic reports with the SEC, which is where the record stood at its latest beat.
Written from the 18 story beats below (2003 to 30 Jan 2025), which come from the company's own announcements and filings.