First, I must say that I more than a little taken aback by Mark's words at the end of his post. How ever undeserved they might have been, to hear them from someone of his stature was truely humbling. So thank you very much Mr. Turner.

I have to say that I mostly agree with what Mark posted and just so you guys don't think I'm kissing his arse by saying so, here is what I wrote Back in December, when the windfall tax news broke, regarding Mr. Soto:

http://agoracom.com/ir/Aurelian/mess...

"Unfortunately I'm taking the Soto article at face value and assuming it is true. Although he has made some unpopular remarks in the past, he seems to be plugged in and writes what he is told. While it is very possible the govt had the story floated to gauge the reaction I think it's best to expect the worst and be surprised should we receive a better outcome. "

Everything the guy has written over the past year has been grounded in fact, so it would seem pointless to shoot the messenger.

Where I DO however agree with the people that flew off the handle on Friday was with the absolute wreckless way in which this news was disseminated.

I have no idea how this news broke (exactly why we should be welcoming to a gentlman like Mark Turner, as he could possibly shed light on things like this). Was their a news conference? Did it actually happen a week before and finally someone picked it up? I simply don't know. It seems like companies like Ascendent that were actually adversely affected had no idea, so I have to assume the decision was made that morning and therefore the timing of the article was innocent.

But as I said, it was the dissemination of the news that I took exception to.

I subscribe to Reuters and this is how it went down:

At 9:21am a news indicator hit my system. It read something to the effect- I don't have a printout so I apologize for the lack of complete accuracy:

Ecuador has sized 17 mining concession held by foreign mining companies...Aurelian, Coriente and IamGold are presently exploring for gold and copper in Ecuador.

This was pretty much repeated at 9:32am.

At 11:17am the story was changed to 570 or whatever companies not 17 siezed etc.

As quick as new stories came out- the old ones were now showing just a time and the following message ie. 09:21 **Story Deleted or Corrected** (Deleted)

This kept going on until the stories started showing up correctly mentioning that Aurelian and the other two remained in good standing and were not affected.

There was almost a full two hours of having no freaking clue what was going on. It is possible that Reuters didn't know which companies were affected during those two hours. I like to think that was the case BUT if it was, there is no way they should have been mentioning Aurelian or the other two. We became guilty by association and the stock plumetted from $8.99 to $7.85 or whatever.

Mark may very well be right though about Soto saving us some real pain. As I said, the articles were deleted on my system so I can't prove this but I'm pretty sure his name was not associated with the earlier articles. In other words it may very well be the case that the Ecuador gov't seized concessions of unreported companies, Reuters ran the story, but Soto stepped up, got on the phones, cleared Aurelian and had the old stories deleted and replaced with a more accurate version of what had happened. If this was indeed the case I extend my gratitude to him. On the other hand, if he was the original author, this guy should be sued.

We've known for about a year now that Ecuador would seize concession from companies who are either not working or paying for them. Correa was on record in the last month saying they would all get the boot except those currently expoiting the natural resource. So this news was due, and knowing that I didn't panick as it played out. I do however feel terrible for the people that got burned though. I could just see this poor Wood Gundy broker, after calling and selling Aurleian to his clients Thursday based on the research from Cooper, waking up Friday, seeing the news and remembering Cooper's words regarding not knowing what the Ecuador gov't would do, and quickly doing what he thought was best by calling back the clients and telling them to sell. Nobody could blame him, he would have known all he could possibly of known and reacted as best he could have from the information provided.

Anyways thats my take.

Thanks again Mark for the kind words and please don't make that post your only contribution ...thoughts from you would be both informative and much appreciated.

Regards,

Buck