just thinking ahead here, but...if a majority of the shareholders are against the kinross deal, then i think the next step is for the majority to remove the board that unanimously endorsed it.

the fund managers who were smart enough to vote against the deal should be the ones nominated to replace them. they may not have the breadth of experience you would want to run a mining company, but they have the most shares, and they are highly motivated to maximize the price of any buyout, not minimize as patrick and the current board have done.

the new board's first action should be to pay patrick whatever he he is legally entitled to, and send him packing. next, start the auction to solicit a realistic offer from the other mining companies.

if no other company makes an adequate offer, due to the low seasonal gold price or political instability, then we wait for conditions to improve. while having no president is a still a lot better than having patrick as president, one of these days (or months) the government of ecuador may let us go back to work. then we will need a new executive, but with all of the acquisitions that have taken place, there should be plenty of mining company executives looking for work.

the board needs to select one who sold his company for a fair price, and didn't simply line his pockets while selling out the rest of the shareholders. i know this is beyond the abilities of our little forum, but if those in the industry are reading this, now you have some sense of where we should be heading.