Frank Candido's Golden Hope Mines Ltd. (GNH) added one-half cent to 3.5 cents on 3,000 shares.

Dissident shareholder Earl Takefman spoke up today, clarifying that the dissident circular was submitted not only by him, but by him and six other unhappy shareholders. Together, they own nine million Golden Hope shares, or 7 per cent of the company. The value of their stock has dropped to $270,000 from $2.7-million over the past year.

The Golden Hope board, Mr. Takefman points out, only owns only 1 per cent of the company's stock. The dissidents want Golden Hope to cut president Candido's $185,000-a-year salary to $120,000 a year, and eliminate its chief financial officer and investor relations positions. Cutting those two jobs would bring management fees to $120,000 a year, down from $475,000 in 2012. One of the dissidents is Golden Hope's consulting geologist, Frank Glass. He says he disagrees with the way the company has managed its drill programs.

Mr. Candido is aware of the stock's poor performance, and he has been blaming it on a poor market for the past two years. Last fall, he started looking into the possibility of bringing the Bellechasse gold property in Southern Quebec to production as quickly as possible. That will be difficult with only $312,000 in working capital.

Much of the company's money, Mr. Candido says, has gone toward dealing with an upset Mr. Takefman. Apparently, Mr. Takefman has forced Golden Hope to spend considerable time and money dealing with hundreds of e-mails, telephone calls and written complaints. Mr. Takefman is experienced when it comes to harassment.

A year ago, a Quebec court ordered him to stop communicating with Montreal lawyer Elliot Biers and his wife. It also ordered him to stop communicating with others about the couple, and levied him with $90,000 in moral and punitive damages and $42,000 in judicial fees. He had spent several years prior sending the couple and the couple's friends dozens of inflammatory e-mails after a disappointing investment in a Biers company