Nice post Coach and I certainly remember the plans for the large tailings pond and wrote about it and why at the time, as did you. There is about zero chance the massive sulphide discovery doesn't get much bigger and will represent a whole new horizon for ECU going forward and probably add another billion ounces of potential. It has been theroized that Velardena may reach at least level 54 and this latest massive sulphide high grade discovery is from level 33 area. Of course almost all theories put forth about Velardena have proven correct to date by ECU management.

The Santa Maria mine is now owned by Penoles having acquired it some time ago from Grupo Mexico and my understanding is the company has had numerous phone calls from within the industry since the press release and their reaction was as you suggest. ECU is on it's way to being a must own junior mining company building a huge resource. Of course for some of us this was and has been the case for sometime.