osmo

Your frustration is not without reason and logic. Placing emotion to one side, I would suggest taking the time to take a step back and look at the bigger picture!

Your frustration is understood. Management have not done a stellar job at transparency. But that is the crux of the issue - they can't! Till that drop dead date is reached by both China and Venezuela then we must wait for the next development, as difficult as that may be.

Fung et al are working within a clearly defined set of rules, rules they were forced to learn the hard way after many years of dealing with Venezuelan bureaucracy, ineptness, lies and deceit. Fung knows what the goal is, how to get to it and to make every effort to achieve that goal. Management embarked upon obaining an acceptable partner because that was what was needed. The proposed Chinese partner was vetted and a plan was put together to develop an acceptable win-win-win mechanism to exploit and develop Las Cristinas. The time and energy that it has taken to get to this stage deserves some consideration.

Do the Venezuelans intend to refuse the deal, deny the Chinese and, in essence, place Las Cristinas on the untouchable list of assets for the next number of years and place themselves at yet another arbitration case. Logic tells me no. The Venezuelans are known as last minute deal makers. I'm working on the assumption that we obtain an 11th hour deal, that the Chinese want access to this asset, that Hugo will do the right thing and permit this to go ahead. Should logic not prevail then plan b is the arbitration route. I'm not sure what the exact claim amount will be but it will be significant, enough to move this stock higher - a la Gold Reserve.

This stock is not a easy one to deal with. Opportunites exist to trade it, to pick up free shares along the way. Retail capitulation close to a 52 week low is not unexpected. Certainly for those willing to take the risk to reward ratio it is worth looking at.

I've taken some opportunities to average down even further and pick up some free shares. I think we are due for a bounce around here and will hold. End of Q1 is fast approaching. No news and a falling price is not uncommon. I flip and flop on this stock as much as the next person. It does that to you but at the end of the day whatever way one looks at it...Crystallex has a strong legal case and the deposit has value. Refusal to issue the permit and placing us at the arbitration route carries with it legal and financial consequences. For that reason and the prospect of a deal enables me to sleep at night - even as the price falls. No news equates to no news.

Frankly, the only thing that worries me is an unsolicited lowball, stock swap deal from Rusoro to spoil the remaining part of Q1.

Anyway that's my opinion - for what it is worth.

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