From a friend close to Corriente....must read.....comforting.

once again Alonso Soto from Reuters picks up a backhanded comment and weaves it into a startling headline. Yes there will be a Royalty, but the key thing is it sure won’t be 70%. They say these kinds of things and then do another. As you point out, there won’t be a mining industry if they do silly things. Management is in Ecuador now and we can all chat anytime you need. A couple things though. Windfall is just that. Second, this is like saying something silly like “we will ask the international community for $300M a year to not pump the oil from the ITT oil fields’ Everyone in international press range thinks he is an idiot, but it was never intended for international consumption, it was meant for Ecuadorian ears who have been fed environmental exaggerations by the activists. Now Correa is saying ‘ Well we have no choice no, we have to pump the oil from the ITT as we have no takers on the free ride” There are probably 3 articles a day in country on yes to mining, yes to open pit, yes to Aurelian and EcuaCorriente. Comments that make it sound like the government is in control, mining will be good for all, offset the ‘we will be a mining economy’ that is all over the press’ The Gov knows that mining will not be built if it doesn’t work financially. There is in country consideration to drop the 13% employee profit share in country as it is in humane and a scam. That would free up a bunch of room. If we read the fine print in that Soto article (same guy that wrote Ecuador to ban open pit mining in Aug……not) key word are, Windfall (with no prices) case by case, etc. They get their political credibility but with no real commitment. There can’t be as each project runs at its on economic structure. We have detailed Economics on a startr project, an expansion and a mega project. We will be first. Aurelian has no economic model nor even a plan for how many ounces to be extracted at what cost. So tough to throw a royalty on it or a tax for that matter. Ecuador needs investment, they are now thirsty for the jobs and taxes from mining. It will all work.