Hi all old ARU hands - long time no see. Hope that you all have reinvested the same energy in what we used to put into ARU and directed that towards better investments since then.

Anyway, I received a link from Agoracom last week and found it to be interesting on the 3rd. anniversary of the ARU exit. Here's the link:

http://blog.agoracom.com/2011/04/28/video-betrayed-the-story-of-aurelian-resources/

As I said a lot of water had gone under the bridge since the Kinross acquisition of ARU. What looked like a bad deal for us small retails back then turned out to be a saviour for most of us. It turned out, and justifiably so, that Kinross was the one that got taken by Ecuador (and Rafael Correa and his gang) in the ARU deal at the end. Where is that booming mining industry in Ecuador that we all banked on a few years back? If it were a wind farm industry (especially the polical kind) Ecuador would be leading the world by now. All talks and promises but no action. LOL.

Personally I sold all my K shares and warrants almost right after (shares at about $23, and warrants at about $4). Not because I had any insight but because I don't want to own any Kinross shares as I blamed them for robbing me of a chance to own a potential "10 bagger" - so to speak. Emotion is wrong in investment but I fluked into that decision and it turned out to be the right one. Kinross has been languishing around $15 to $17 for the longest time and their warrants I assume are likely almost worthless as three years have lapsed and there is no sight that Kinross will be near $30 ever. Ty Burt is a better "empire builder" than an "empire ruler" as it so turned out.

After the ARU bad experience I swore off investing in all prospecting and exploratory mining companies. It only cost me a chance to put some real money into Ivanhoe Mines (then $8, now $25+). I kept telling myself, "the Mongolians would make the Ecuadorians look like amateurs in playing political games, so don't do there". Well, I was wrong on that count.

While we are on the topic of Ecuador, why is Rafael Correa is still in charge down there? Isn't Ecuador has a history of changing regimes on a political wimp? Boy, he sure lasted longer than what most of the investors had hoped for.

Anyway, it's nice to see so many familiar names on the old ARU BB still around here. I'll check in more frequently from now on. I have to say there was not a better group of posters on any internet forum than the old ARU gang. Their mining, financial, and stock market expertise that used to post there was simply amazing and the camaraderie then was - priceless.

Regards.

nijinsky70