Kerrisdale,

very interesting post indeed.

/Interesting trivia....Fung was a director of Stockhouse./ 

In regards to S.H., it would not surprise me one bit if it was found out that they opperate a boiler room inhouse. How priceless is this senario:

1) You start up a stock chat line who's cast of characters are the general puplic who contribute there time and knowledge for free.

2) You then sell advertising to companies who wish to pitch products to this audience. 

3) You control this cast of characters by being able to suspend them when they start saying things you do not like.

4) You then set up a boiler room gang of pumpers & bashers to promote or bash companies depending on there specific merits. The direction for this could come from some outside entity that pays you to do this or from your own volition. In either case you can profit from the scam hahahahahahahahaha. If some outside poster proves too strong then you remove him by suspending him hahahahahahaha.

The cost for such an operation is really neglagible and the returns can be priceless.

Does this sound plausible to anyone else out there, it certainly does to me. S.H. is a cesspool and that is why I never posted on it before ARU. ARU on S.H. was a good board before the big players got involved and turned it into what it is today. Like I said before, I monitored S.H. for years because occasionally some good information was posted but mostly to see what kind of games if any were being played on a particular investment of mine.

Now in regards to Equador & ARU.

Equador has been voted the best place to retire in the world. Looking further into that statement I find that it is this year actually a toss up between Mexico and Ecuador. Interestingly enough Panama prior to this year held the top spot for 6 years running. These studies are put out by travel magazines and such and are based on data compiled from the relocation destination of senior citizen's or retiree's.

My personal belief on this is that such a decision is a highly personal one and what one person my find highly attractive another may not. The general point though is that enough people think Equador is highly attractive and secure enough, that in there retirement years when most elderly people are feeling much less adventurous,  they feel safe to move to Equador. This fact alone contradicts what the fear mongers would try and portray as a totally corrupt, unstable country.

In regards to Correa, I neither like nor dislike him because I do not know him personally and he has not been in power long enough for me to judge his actions accordingly. I maintain he was by far the best person for the job out of all the candidates and I respect him even more now because so far he has proved to be a man of his word.

I stated that he was the man who could and has been given the very important backing of the people to get rid of government corruption. I never said or ment to imply that he would definately do it, though I think that the odds favour that he will make a substantial improvemnt in how honestly the Equadorian government operates.

I think you would be hard pressed to find a more distrusting person of politician & big government than myself hahahahaha. I also believe that the majority of politicians are corrupt whether it be morally or finacially. It unfortunately just happens to be the type of people that gravitate to positions of ease and power. I liken them to whore's, they ultimately do whatever the populace wants them to do,  while all the time they are reaching into your pockets to see how much cash they can grab for themselves hahahahahahahaha. This is why I said it was important for him to have the people behind him and want such action because without there support no reformist will ever accomplish anything. The more the populace turns a blind eye to corruption, the worst it will become.

In regards to the expanding of the Manta deep water port in Equador by the chinese firm Hutchinson Terminals and there motivation for such. Nothing at the moment warrents such a business venture unless it was in preparation for eventual mineral concentrate shipments. Equador really has little to offer the Chinese except natural resources and agricultural products.

Shipments of concentrate would not have anything to do with ARU because gold mines all produce there own gold Dore bars on site. These bars of gold usually weigh in around 25 kg and then are shipped out to be further refined to a higher purity by a mint or refiner. Nothing more than an armoured car is need to ship what comes out of a gold mine.

The port subject would be an issue to Corriente and other potential copper producers who perhaps one day may include ARU. I brought it up more as an example, to show how I beleive that Correa is very serious in starting a mining industry and what kind of DD on the big picture an investor should carry out. A lot of infastructure must be layed out in order to start a mining industry and it appears to me that the required ground work for Equadors specific situation is being worked on.

 With regards to Barrick somehow stealing ARU, I do not buy into such a scenario. If Nobao had got elected, thankfully he did not, then I would say that you have a good case for such a scenario. Noboa is an unscrupulous businessman simular to the ones you mentioned.

If Correa had wished to operate in such a manner he would not be bringing in the reforms he is trying to right now. The way business dealings are being carried out down in Ecuador from what I have been observing has changed.

Case in point OCCIDENTAL who were caught off guard when with Correa entering the picture it turned out to be different than the expected business as usual ( wink, wink, nudge, nudge). If Correa was of simular strip to those in the past he could have easly accepted a brown envelope under the table in exchange for smoothing things over.

The story on this can be found at this link

http://adbusters.org/the_magazine/67/Ecuador_vs_Occidental.html

I do believe that ARU is being stolen right now, however it is only from those who have succombed to the manipulations and sold there shares at these far undervalued prices.

FDN will go to the highest bidder. If it is Barrick so be it, if the majority of share holders at that time accept the offer then to the majority it was fair. 

For those who think perhaps along the lines that Correa can be bribed into handing somehow FDN over to Barrick. Just what has Barrick got that ARU and there backers cannot bring to the table also ( nothing in my opinion ). ARU has legal title to the property and can offer alot more if nessary with a lot less potential hastle and bad PR.

If you are a crook, who would you rather have dealings with, ARU by all appearances an honest, competent, socially responsible and law abiding company or Barrick, proven time and again to be  unscrupolous. Personally if I made an under the table deal, I would do it with ARU rather than Barrick. ARU would be more likely to honour it vs Barrick who as soon as they got what they wanted would be looking for the quickest way to break if I were no longer in a position to enforce it,  all in my opinion of course.  

 Regards,

F.F.