History
Magellan began as a tiny Arizona silver explorer, bought a Mexican mill, lost it to noteholders in 2020, relaunched in 2024 and moved into a Montana copper-gold earn-in in 2025.
2012-2016: A small Arizona silver explorer
Magellan Gold started as a tiny exploration company funded mainly by loans and share sales to insiders. Early 2012 raises were small, and by October 2012 it raised $30,000 at $0.15 a share. In August 2012 it optioned the Silver District property in La Paz County, Arizona, from Columbus Silver: 108 unpatented claims plus patented claims and a state lease, over 2,000 acres. The option called for staged payments of $63,200 at signing, $50,000 by the end of 2012, $400,000 by the end of 2013 and $500,000 by the end of 2014.
In August 2013 the company signed an amendment to the option agreement, though the filing did not describe the changed terms. In May 2014 it announced it had received assay results from its recently completed core drilling program at the Silver District, without giving grades or intercepts. In October 2014 it avoided the big payments by buying the property outright for $100,000 cash, drawn from its Gibbs credit line, and placed it in a new subsidiary, Gulf+Western Industries. The record is then quiet until late 2016, when it signed an earn-in with Rio Silver to gain 50% of the Niobamba silver-gold project in Peru by spending $2 million over three years.
2017-2018: The Mexican mill and toxic notes
In March 2017 Magellan agreed to buy an operating flotation mill (a plant that separates metal from crushed ore) in Nayarit, Mexico, from Rose Petroleum for $1.5 million. CEO Pierce Carson said it would turn Magellan from an explorer into a producer. In July OTC Markets flagged unusual trading tied to unauthorised promotional newsletters and reviewed the company's eligibility for the OTCQB; Magellan said it had no part in them. A binding agreement followed in September, and the purchase of the SDA Mill closed in December for $1.0 million in cash and 14.2 million shares worth $500,000, held in escrow and repurchasable by Magellan. The company funded it with $1.05 million of 10% secured notes due December 2018.
The financing turned costly. In November 2017 it sold Auctus Fund a $170,000 note and EMA Financial a $125,000 note, both convertible at steep discounts to recent trading prices, a structure that tends to cause heavy dilution. In January 2018 it ended the Peru earn-in. EMA began converting in May 2018, turning $27,225 of debt into 5,000,000 shares. In June the company fell into default on two notes and agreed to a roughly 25% rise in principal in return for forbearance. In July Carson converted $98,100 of unpaid salary and advances into stock, and another $63,000 convertible note was sold. In August the Mexican subsidiary secured rights to the nearby El Dorado gold-silver property as a source of ore for the mill, and the company negotiated temporary conversion floors of $0.018 a share with EMA and Auctus while selling a further $38,000 note. In November it raised $205,000 through Series 2018A notes and $160,700 through short-term notes at 36% interest; Auctus converted $44,044 into 3,850,000 shares at $0.01144.
2019-2020: Restructuring and loss of the mill
In October 2019 the company swapped $2,422,694 of accumulated debt owed to five investors for 242,270 shares of new 10% Series A Convertible Preferred Stock, convertible at $1.00 a share. Days later it took a 150-day option on Golden Minerals' Santa Maria gold-silver project in Chihuahua, Mexico, for $1 million cash plus a royalty. In January 2020 it agreed to sell the Silver District property to NV Gold for cash, shares and a work commitment. In May 2020 it defaulted on $1.05 million of notes and surrendered the Mexican subsidiaries holding the SDA Mill and El Dorado to noteholders in full settlement, losing the production assets it had spent over two years building.
2021-2026: Quiet years and a fresh start
The company stayed financially active in 2021. In April it sold AJB Capital a $200,000 note, convertible at 90% of the lowest recent price, with 266,667 commitment shares. In July eight investors exercised warrants for 1,435,000 shares at $0.20 in cash, and five preferred holders converted 192,269 preferred shares, about 79% of the 2019 issue, plus $356,123 of unpaid dividends into common stock. After that the record is largely silent.
In January 2024 Magellan re-emerged under new management in Wallace, Idaho, agreeing to buy mineral assets and take assignment of a lease from Gold Express Mines for 6 million shares. In March 2025, renamed Magellan Copper & Gold, it agreed a joint-venture earn-in with Gold Express Mines on Montana's Atlantic Cable Mine, a property with a reported historic copper-gold resource. By spending $400,000 over two years it can earn a 45% interest. As of the latest record, the outcome of that earn-in is not yet known, and the company holds no interest in its original Arizona or Mexican assets.
Written from the 27 story beats below (2012 to 3 Mar 2025), which come from the company's own announcements and filings.