I got several mails this week after posting this little line on Wednesday........

Expect Ecuador's new mining law to be published next week. That's good jungle drum juice. Don't put the cart before the horse, boyz.

.....and basically the mail enquiries were a variation on the same tunes of "is that true?", "how do you know?" and "is that reliable?". So a word on how rumours work down here, and here are three bullet points on the subject (in no particular order).

So in the specific case of "Ecuador mining law coming out next week", nothing has changed on that one since last Wednesday and I fully expect it to happen, probably later in the week once Chávez has come and gone from Ecuador (the H man visits Tuesday). To give a bit of background, I understand that Correa wants to meet with Chiriboga to discuss a couple of items contained in the draft before the final law is published, pomp and fanfare and press conference and the whole nueve yardas. So once the Muffin has his chat with Galo, the green lights are on.

Would I bet 20 bucks that the law hits next week? Yes, no doubts. I've heard from three separate places that it'll happen, one is particularly trustworthy and duplicity is unlikely from at least two of the three. Would I bet my mortgage on it happening? No, don't be stupid. This is LatAm. Relax and smell flowers.