She finally got back to me on my concerns. Saying a lot of the things already posted on here but here it is anyways.
I’m sorry not to get back to you sooner. The phone has been ringing off the hook and email is also very busy. It is difficult for us to comment on this publicly. We are as keen to remove the uncertainty around ARU as any shareholder could possibly be. We think that the proposed windfall tax only applies to oil and gas (the wording of the actual draft bill is that the tax is going to be applied to “non-renewable resources” and “companies that have contracts with the government, with the contracts specifying the reference price for the commodity”). We do not have a contract with the government and are not aware of any mining company in Ecuador that does. In our very recent discussions with government we did not get the impression that they had arrived at a final structure for mining. Last week they were still having international experts in for presentations and we thought it would be January/February at the earliest before they would make any announcements/release draft laws. We are seeking a clarification from the government regarding the windfall profit tax but not sure if we’ll be able to get it any time soon. The other possible avenue we are exploring is editing of the bill to make it more specific prior to the Assembly voting on it. It is with the legislative committee for discussion/editing now so that is a possibility.