From Greyhound to CEO: Andy Wallace Named CEO of Allegiant Gold, Ltd

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PORTALES, NM (11/30/2017) Andy Wallace, who graduated with a bachelor's degree in geology from Eastern New Mexico University in 1971, was recently named the first CEO of Allegiant Gold, Ltd., a gold exploration and development company.

His involvement with Allegiant Gold, Ltd., began with Cordex Exploration Co., a company Andy owns with business partner Bruce Delaney. "We have a unique business and likely one you have never encountered before," explained Andy.

Cordex, a private company founded by John Livermore in 1969, provides exploration expertise in the United States to "funding partners," which are generally companies wishing to enter the mining business in the United States but with no staff in the United States of their own directed toward this goal.

Cordex is charged with locating and acquiring lands with promising potential that allow funding companies to produce gold and silver. Cordex, which has found and developed five gold mines in Nevada, also tests these properties after acquisition with geological mapping, surface sampling, geophysical surveys and drilling and carries the most promising properties to the feasibility study stage. Past gold production from Cordex discoveries in Nevada exceeds 10,000,000 ounces of gold, with another 10,000,000 million ounces remaining in reserves.

The company has had 15 different "funding partners" over the years, including several of the major mining companies in the world and junior explorers just getting into the business. The "funding companies" often participate in a joint venture basis with 2-4 funding partners at any one time funding Cordex work.

The principal "funding partner" for Cordex work for the last ten years is Columbus Gold Corp., based in Vancouver, B.C. Columbus has interests in French Guiana, as well as the Nevada properties generated by Cordex. A decision was recently made to create a new public company out of Columbus that will concentrate only on the United States gold properties. The new company will be called Allegiant Gold Ltd., which will begin trading on the TSX stock exchange in early December 2017.

"I will be the first CEO of Allegiant, which is only logical as I will direct all the exploration activities on the Allegiant properties," said Andy.

He enjoys his career in geology because he can "get out in the backcountry in the hills and mountains and not being confined to an office. I never do the same thing two days in a row. I enjoy visiting discoveries we have made in the past that employ hundreds of people now and learning about how the employees now contribute to their local communities."

When asked about his career goals, Andy explained that the "goal of any exploration geologist is to discover valuable mineral deposits which were previously unknown. I have been lucky in that regard, but I continue to be driven to make new discoveries and hopefully bigger deposits than I have found in the past."

Andy was born and raised in Clovis, New Mexico. His mother was a single parent who worked as a secretary and ultimately managed estates toward the end of her career. She also had an active tax preparation business in the evenings and weekends.

Andy has two sisters: Anne Horton, who resides in Clovis and is a retired X-ray technician, and Sarah Holcomb, who resides in Midland with her husband, Ron. Both Sarah and Ron attended ENMU.

Andy is married to fellow Greyhound Grad Jill Yarborough Wallace, who received her bachelor's and master's degrees in math and education from ENMU in the early 1970s. They have four children, Jenni, Christy, Brian and Todd, and nine grandchildren, who live in Reno, Nevada, Celina, Texas, Nashville, Tennessee, and Albuquerque, New Mexico. The couple's dog, Charley, is a "wonderful and much-loved" four-year-old blue merle Australian Shepherd.

The Greyhound Grad said that ENMU was a "wonderful experience for me personally and academically. I could not have chosen a better place. I got lots of individual attention from my geology professors, Bill Pitt, Paul Krutak, Fred Nials, Leroy Corbett and John Puffer, which really helped me focus on doing well. We lost Bill Pitt a few years ago, but I remain friends with all the others today."

He said that his education at ENMU provided him with "very solid fundamentals necessary to become a professional geologist. I have taught at a university and have been associated with others, and I know that my undergraduate education at ENMU was the best I could have received."

Read more: http://www.enmu.edu/about/news-and-events/enmu-news/alumni-highlights/2377-from-greyhound-to-ceo-andy-wallace-named-ceo-of-allegiant-gold-ltd