Hello XXXX,

Nothing really makes any sense. The MinAmb approved the EIS in the summer of ’07 and requested a specific Bond and Environmental Tax payment in order to process and issue the Permit. We complied and posted the Bond and paid the Tax.

In the summer of ’08 the MinAmb asked the Company to consider some changes to the Project in order to permit the Project. We gave them a proposal for the changes and they formally responded that the changes met all their standards and requirements and that the Project could be placed in the permitting line.

We have complied with all requests and are awaiting a formal response from the Government – timing is difficult to predict.

Regards, Richard

From: XXXX [mailto:winterka@sbcglobal.net]

Sent: Monday, December 08, 2008 5:58 PM

To: Richard Marshall

Subject: Re: The Permit Process

Richard,

Thank you for hanging in there and not running off into the hills screaming. All of us appreciate the information that you are able to share.

It just occurred to me from one of your responses that appeared on Agoracom that perhaps the VZ officials dealing with our permit may not have the technical expertise to deal with the 21st century technology associated with a state of the art open pit mine in a delicate environmental area. Could it be that there is a reluctance to take responsibility from mid level government officials? Or is it simply a high level political football game?

XXXX (winterka)