GW - What we have to remember when we try to parse the Vennie bureaucracy is the exxtent to which corruption exists in the various levels of government. I don't believe that the bureaucrats are under Hugo's thumb at all. It's a symbiotic relationship - Hugo will have no reason to stamp out graft - he allows it to happen, in exchange for the local brass keeping general dissatisfaction from boiling over; they need him to make sure that their under-the-table payments can continue. That also allows him to ensure that election results are more-or-less pre-ordained.

Hugo's sense of self-preservation trumps any concerns about expanding commerce in an orderly manner. I don't believe for one secondd that there iss any kind of concerted effort to develop mining, for example.

Hugo's mis-management has forced him to tie his can to China's tail and hang on for the ride.

But I don't see the flip side as terribly encouraging for us. We also have our cans tied to China's tail. I don't have much faith in the thought that KRY has some sort of magic expertise that the Chinese lack, making it indispensible to China's development of Vennie's resources. Indeed, one of the issues that have dogged China's expansion in Africa and elsewhere in S. America, is that they almost immediately handd their developments over to Chinese experts brought in to boss around the locals, who are generally reduced to slave-like conditions (see the mine in Chile/Peru where the whole town has been fighting the mine's chinese owners, almost since day one - not sure of the ton's name - they have even hired large numbers of rent-a-cops to keep the natives in order). They would never have spent the time and effort on Km88 gold development if they thought their success was dependent on a pip-squeak like KRY.

I think that too many people on this board have been seduced to believe that things in Vennie, and in our JV will, or can be expected, to operate within the rules set out by the SEC or the OSC. I believe those of us couldn't be further from the truth.

Bottom line, I think I would prefer that we get a big enough pop on day one or thereabouts to allow me/us to get out with a healthy profit, or get a good buy-out by a big miner, on a share exchange basis, so that the long-term risk of the Vennie/Chinese/Kry combination is muted.