<safeharbour>, as requested, below is a summary of comments made in a speech this morning at a Florida conference by Dr. Jose Serrano, Vice Minister of Mining, Ecuador. Dr. Serrano is being interviewed by media right now so there may be some media coverage (although none of his official comments in the talk look to be big news; most are points that have already been made publicly by the government). I can’t guarantee that this captures all of the important points although I’ve endeavoured to do so.

-Serrano gave his talk in Spanish. Very general talk, no details at all about the new law. Same emphasis on environmentally and socially responsible mining.

-Stressed that mandate is exceptional and transitory and will not be the basis for the new mining law.

-Support for mining from Correa but 'we shall not give away these resources'.

-Summarised each of the main 4 projects.

-Proposing 3 royalty models based on a) production, b) profits, or c) ventas menas costas de produccion which I think means an NSR. They want further feedback from companies on this and other aspects of the new law.

-New law will be passed by the end of August by the 'legislative organization', which may indicate that the Ministry is unsure of which legislative body will pass the law.

-Was reluctant to give any details on the law, said wait until next week for new law but seemed to think that people would be pleased with the new law.

-Stressed that the national mining company will not be involved with metallic mining and will not force its way into existing private projects.