'I was surprised that they did the capital raising now and that...

'I was surprised that they did the capital raising now and that they did not wait till the spud began"

Possibly where the chequered past comes into it.
People being contracted might not want to start drilling until they know they will definately get paid as well as companies supplying pipe and ancillary equipment.

Also most investors put money into GDN in the old days on what management said they were going to be doing and not based on ramping on Hc.........Especially the middle bit of the below release.......

For instance::

Moving Towards Production
A production plant is planned for the Golden Eagle gas field. The company is confident of moving to production on the basis of the capacity of the existing wells. The plant will process gas from Paradox Basin #1 and #3 which will be delivered into the Williams gas pipeline. Our US landman is currently working on converting the existing water right of way to a gas right of way to tie into the Williams line. Simultaneously investigations are underway into development options including utilising a gas gatherer to independently supply, build and operate a production facility or potentially owning and operating our own facility. The first firm development proposal from an independent gas gatherer is expected in August. At this stage the longest lead time item appears to be the establishment of a tap point and installation of metering into the Williams pipeline.

Williams gas pipelines have initially responded that the tap could be established early in 2011.

The Golden Eagle field is currently capable of producing approximately 1 million cubic feet of gas per day from the combined capacity of Paradox Basin #1 and #3. The gas is dry and sweet and requires minimal processing to meet the pipe specification. Golden State believes the production rates can be increased by implementing larger stimulations of the existing productive intervals. The existing stimulations on Paradox Basin #1 or 3 are much smaller than originally intended and both wells need further stimulation. In addition productivity would likely increase by completing the wells over several intervals and comingling the production. At current gas prices the company is targeting production rates above 2 million cubic feet per day per well for production wells.

Gas Plant and Pipeline Tenders
Golden State has reviewed a number of tenders to provide gas production facilities.

Now based on information they released wouldn't you say that it looks like they would be actually progressing to production?? Like title of the first announcement said!
They have wasted a whole lot of peoples times calling for tenders for the supply of the above........contractors even in another country would be looking into the background of the company and asking whether or not they will get mucked around thus may be asking for proof of funds to continue with a drilling contract.........Name changes do very little most of the time.........