Fen....I can't say that I disagree with that assessment. I don't believe that China needs KRY beyond the point of getting their hooks into Las Cristinas (with all engineering data developed to date) while eliminating the prospect of being embroiled in an international arbitration case. China is one of the biggest gold miners on the planet. To think that they don't have the technical resources to move Las Cristinas forward once it is permitted and they have access to available technical documents is absurd. Certainly they don't need KRY to show them how to navigate Venezuela's political landscape.

Where we may disagree is to what extent we are tied to China's tail. I gather that you are implying that China will possibly screw us behind the scenes (with or without help from Venezuela) due to the lack of adequate legal protections inside Venezuela along with the prospect for "suspect" accounting procedures and things of that nature. I don't have an answer for that. I'm sure KRY is crossing the legal "T"s and dotting the legal "i"s...but whether agreed upon terms can\will be circumvented in a practical sense is conjecture at this point in time. No doubt....based on past experience with Venezuela...this cannot be ruled out. The question is whether China will play by the agreed upon rules regarding the JV terms. Ideally, I would like to see CRRC simply buy out KRY's 1\3 ownership (even if it is at a substantial discount) shortly after the JV is consummated than deal with the vagaries of Venezuelan business practices longer term. I hope that China is motivated along these lines as well. This would allow them to take the whole pie at a discount while avoiding a legal mess with their minority partner should greed be their ultimate motivating philosophy (which, of course, we know it is).