Not sure what people want to see and although this update was based on highlights and not comprehemsive data report, it is full of valuable information on multiple exploration fronts and showing progress on the operational side with a near term major production expansion scheduled for completion in 2014 with an additional 2000 tpd mill. This was just released 2 weeks ago.

I can count 7 exploration areas mentioned recently, from the ECU side there is Santa Juana, Chicago, San Diego press released recently, from the Golden Minerals side Al Quevar in Argentina, Zacatecas project in Mexico, the Cochabamba project in Peru and the Atlas project in Argentina. This only leaves about 40 other property assets including what ECU had in property inventory. This company has one of the most exciting junior exploration precious metal programs on the planet with lots of capital on hand, good institutional base and in most cases a loyal retail following plus an experienced management team.

ECU had issues with both capital and lacked experienced mining personel like engineers and geo's but Golden has brought this to the table plus plus plus. People like Michel couldn't be everywhere all the time with 450 employes who were Mexican, things are different now and much more critical mass exists which will advance things much faster with a higher degree of success.

I see Golden Minerals as one of the best emerging junior producer stories in the silver/gold space with an already existing large respource on multiple properties with more high potential exploration projects than any other comparable junior and the outlook for 3 producing properties in the next 5-6 years. It's a must own in my view among emerging producer juniors no matter what the market (shorts) says right now during tax loss selling. I am mega long and intend to stay this way for the upside is better here than almost anywhere else in the precious metals space, in my view.

The present share price makes no sense but then what does these days!!!

Re-post below with lots of info:

Velardena operations

The Velardena operation is a gold, silver and base metals mining and processing operation located in the state of Durango, Mexico. The operations include two underground mines, the Velardena mine and the Chicago mine, and an associated 500 tonnes per day oxide plant and 320 tonnes per day sulphide plant. The Velardena mine contains four principal mining areas: Santa Juana, Terneras, San Juanes and San Mateo. The Chicago mine is located approximately two kilometres south of the Velardena mine.

Since January, 2008, ECU has mined sulphide and oxide mineralized material from the Velardena operation and produced lead, zinc and pyrite concentrates along with dore bars. In the first nine months of 2011, the Velardena operation produced approximately 272,000 ounces of silver, 5,000 ounces of gold, 650,000 pounds of zinc and 433,000 pounds of lead. During the fourth quarter of 2011, production will be negatively impacted as the company completes mine development work and implements operational changes and improvements in the processing facilities. The company expects production rates to increase commencing in the first quarter of 2012, and by the fourth quarter of 2012, annual production rates are estimated to be over 800,000 ounces of silver, 16,000 ounces of gold and one million pounds of combined lead and zinc. Production levels are expected to increase substantially once the planned sulphide plant is operational.

Since the company assumed management on Sept. 2, 2011, operational improvements have included moving the underground mine development out of the veins and into the adjacent footwall structures. Although this work has decreased production of plant feed temporarily, ore head grades to the plants have improved by approximately 45 per cent for silver and 24 per cent for gold, with the head grades and daily feed expected to continue to increase as the mine development opens more working faces for ore extraction. Process control improvements in the oxide plant have increased silver recoveries from approximately 54 per cent to 73 per cent, with additional metallurgical test work and operational improvements contuning. Process control improvements in the sulphide plant have improved lead, zinc and pyrite concentrate production and quality.

Approximately 600 metres of new mine development have been completed since Sept. 2, 2011. In addition, the company has commenced work on the San Mateo ramp. About 900 metres of the five-metre by five-metre main production ramp had been previously completed but subsequently halted in 2008. The company expects to complete 1,400 metres of ramp and lateral accesses during the balance of 2011 and 2012, which will provide haulage access for undeveloped ores in the San Mateo, San Juanes and Terneras mining areas, and will ultimately provide the primary access for the Santa Juana area. The Santa Juana area comprises a vein group that is expected to provide the opportunity for large scale tonnage extraction for the planned 2,000-tonne-per-day sulphide plant.

Approximately $6-million in modern mining equipment for the Velardena and Chicago mines is expected to arrive over the next several months, including approximately $4-million of equipment that is no longer required at El Quevar due to the changing scope of that project. The equipment includes three hydraulic jumbo drills, nine scooptrams and two underground haul trucks, along with ancillary underground and surface equipment. The equipment will be used to advance the San Mateo ramp and to modernize the Velardena and Chicago mines.

The company is moving forward with the evaluation, design and engineering of a new 2,000-tonne-per-day sulphide plant. Samuel Engineering has been retained by Golden Minerals to lead the engineering effort. The company expects that engineering, construction and ramp-up of the new plant would take approximately three years and would require external financing. The planned plant would have an estimated annual production of four million ounces of silver, 80,000 ounces of gold and 10 million pounds of each lead and zinc and could be completed by late 2014.

The independent consulting firm of Chlumsky Armbrust and Meyer (CAM) has been retained to provide an updated Canadian National Instrument 43-101- (NI 43-101-) compliant resource estimate for Velardena. As part of updating the resource estimate, CAM is auditing the geologic database and the quality control and quality assurance procedures. The company expects that the new resource estimate will be completed about year-end 2011.

El Quevar project

The company continued evaluation of the El Quevar project in the Salta province of northern Argentina during the quarter. As previously reported, a preliminary evaluation of the geologic data from the underground drifting suggests that the deposit may be amenable to bulk mining. This could include a potential open pit on the east and central areas of the Yaxtche zone, along with bulk underground mining in the west Yaxtche zone.

Two drills are currently in operation at El Quevar. The company has developed an underground drill program for the east and central Yaxtche zones, with a 1,300-metre fan drilling program planned for the next several months. Approximately 30 holes of a planned 50 surface drillhole program have been completed on the west Yaxtche zone to provide infill drill data and additional information for the geologic model. The company has received results for 13 of the holes, of which 10 holes intersected five or more metres of values exceeding 100 grams per tonne silver. This included drillhole QVD-341 which contained a four-metre intercept that averaged 878 grams per tonne silver and hole QVD-342 which contained a 22-metre intercept that averaged 717 grams per tonne silver. To date, a total of approximately 392 diamond drillholes have been completed at the El Quevar project, of which 260 holes (65,800 metres) have been drilled in the Yaxtche zone.

An updated Canadian National Instrument 43-101- (NI 43-101-) compliant mineral resource estimate on El Quevar is being prepared by the independent consulting firm of Pincock, Allen and Holt (PAH). The PAH resource estimate will consider an economic resource from an open pit on the east and central Yaxtche zones and bulk mining by underground methods on the west Yaxtche zone. The updated resource estimate for the El Quevar project is expected about year-end 2011.

Exploration

Drilling is currently under way at the Zacatecas project in Mexico, the Cochabamba project in Peru and the Atlas project in Argentina. At the Zacatecas project, a planned 60-drillhole program is under way at the Panuco target in the northern part of the approximately 15,000-hectare Zacatecas property position. This is in addition to a previously reported 24-hole drill program. Assays received to date for this new round of drilling include drillhole PA-11-68 which contained 1.50 metres of 1.05 grams per tonne gold and 667.9 grams per tonne silver, and 3.03 metres of 0.23 gram per tonne gold and 173.6 grams per tonne silver.

In the southern part of the Zacatecas project, adjacent to Capstone's Cozamin mine, an initial eight-hole shallow drillhole program has been completed at the Adriana target. Results indicate that strong mineralization is present in many of the structures drilled, similar to that in the San Roberto zone in the upper part of the Cozamin mine. A second round of deeper drillholes is now under way, with three holes of a five-hole program completed to date. Assays are pending, but visual examination of the core indicates that copper mineralization is present in the vein intercepts, along with zinc, similar to that in the intermediate levels in the Cozamin mine.

At the Cochabamba project located near the Silver Standard San Luis project in Peru, drilling is under way on the first hole of an initial 12-hole program. The Cochabamba project geology consists of veins and breccias in tertiary volcanic rocks. Sampling of outcrops and a historic mine dump at Cochabamba resulted in gold values of up to 14 grams per tonne and silver values of up to 450 grams per tonne.

At the Atlas project in the Deseado Massif area of southern Argentina near Cerro Vanguardia, drilling is under way on an initial 12-hole drill program. Four drillholes have been completed to date, with assays pending. Logging of the core from the initial holes indicates that the company has intercepted the vein at a high level in the first three holes. The fourth hole intercepted a zone of greater than 30 metres of strong veining and breccias with abundant pyritic mineralization that is suggestive of gold values. The Atlas project consists of epithermal veins and breccias up to 10 metres wide with up to 10 grams per tonne over one metre in surface outcrops.

Additional information pertaining to the company's exploration results may be found on the Golden minerals website.