News

August 28, 2008

Genco Mounted A Tricky Balancing Act During A Recent Proxy Dispute, But Now It’s Back To The Business Of Mining Silver

By Christian Gradley

One week ago Robert Gardner, co-chairman of Genco Resources, was in Beijing, in his capacity as a member of the British Columbia (BC) government-sponsored business delegation to China. “I have very close connections with China,” Mr. Gardner told Minews, “which in this day and age is exceptionally important.” After some schmoozing with BC Premier Gordon Campbell and other leading BC and Chinese business and political leaders at the opening of the BC-Canada Pavilion, Mr. Gardner took the opportunity to enjoy the Olympic Games. Of particular viewing interest for him were the gymnastics, which is somewhat ironic given that over the last few months Genco has rather looked as though it’s been on the balance beam itself. One might think that Mr. Gardner would want to steer clear of any and all reminders of Genco’s recent “unhappy experiences,” but with the company’s fundamentals still strongly in place and all internal divisions long since resolved, he’s convinced that Genco’s now executed dismount from that balancing beam was more than good enough for the gold.

The trouble for Genco started in early June of this year, when one of the company’s directors, who also happened to be the company’s largest shareholder, began to voice his displeasure with Genco’s direction.  James Anderson’s dissenting voice soon became public when he launched a proxy fight to replace three of the company’s board members with his own selection. The dispute spawned two “save Genco” websites (www.savegenco.com was one), and quickly...