Nobody hits a home run every time, but I am happy with a triple, and that is what I think ECU has on this proposed deal. The only reason they did not hit a homer is that they had to do the offering at $0.70 a share which is below the current and recent share price which is low itself due to a low silver price and the current poor market for juniors.

The winners for this deal are a great price for the mill. A mill which is perfect for processing their oxides. A mill which is already constructed. A mill which is only 2 miles from Santa Juana and is right next to the Chicago property.

The price for the mill is $8,000,000 U.S cash plus 750,000 ECU shares which at the offering price of $0.70 canadian ($0.60 U.S.) is $450,000 for a total of $8,450,000. This is a great price for a 500 tpd plant/mill. ECU had previously been talking about increasing to a 1500 tpd mill which Stephen Altmann had told me would cost about $70,000,000. The Hecla plant/mill will cost $16,900 per tpd vs a cost of 46,667 per tpd for the previously proposed 1500 tpd mill. A bargin. Also if ECU were to buy a new $70 million mill they would probably have had to raise $100 million and in this market the share price would have been a blood bath.

ECU has been sitting on over $10,000,000 of gold in mined ore which could not be extracted. The fact that the proposed plant/mill is cynide leach means it will efficently be able to extract the gold. ECU's news release also said that plant/mill would produce either a gold and silver precipatate or dore bars which would not require the company to enter into a smelter contract. I think that means that the metal contents would be so high that it could be sent straight to a refinery.

The fact that the plant/mill is already constructed means ECU does not have to wait a year for a new mill to be fabricated and does not have to clear a building site or pour foundations and construct an enclosing roof and or building. ECU also does not have to install pumps and pipes to supply water to a new mill. I don't know if Mr. Altmann's previous price estimate of $70 million included this site and building work or not, but I do know that with the proposed purchase that ECU gets the whole enchalada for 8.45 million dollars.

The plant/mill is 2 miles from Santa Juana and right next to Chicago. Those big cats probably get 2 miles per gallon of deisel and a regular dump truck gets 8 or 10 mpg. Deisel costs about $3 per gallon so our fuel cost will be a paltry 10 cents per tonne of ore. If a dump truck and driver costs $150 per day and makes 10 trips per day at 15 tonnes per trip thats another $1 per tonne. Both of these costs are minor when considering the oxide ore is worth $120 to $150 per tonne.

Now for the fun part. Based on ECU's December 10, 2009 NI43-101 news release, today's news release, and current metal prices, the following data is obtained:

M&I oxides = 1,075,000 tonnes @ 394 g/tonne Ag Equiv

Inf oxides = 379,000 tonnes @ 318 g/tonne Ag Equiv

Total Oxides = 1,454,000 tonnes @ 374 g/tonne Ag Equiv average

Current Silver Price = $12.04/oz

Ore Value = $144.86/tonne

Mine and Mill Expense = $45/tonne

Profit = $99.86/tonne

Number of tonnes processed per year at 300 tpd = 109,500 tonnes

Profit per year = $10,935,000

Number of years of oxide ore supply at 300 tpd = 13.28 years

Payback time for $8,450,000 cost of plant/mill = 9.3 months

Number of ECU shares after financing = 267,609,557

While this plant/mill is not large enough to generate a high share price based on PE, is does fit the ticket for paying for company expenses and exploration. ECU should then be able to operate in the current market without frequent share offerings while we zero in on the massive sulfides and wait for the silver price to increase greatly.