I don't recall making any such statement about a loan amongst large shareholders although I do remember hoping that debt financing be arranged as opposed to equity financing, and I still feel that way. No one I know either inside or outside the company wanted to dance with the baystreet boys again but we don't always get what we want.

As far as Altmann you are most definitely wrong and I know becuase I talk to people and to Steve and I know his views and those of others. Why don't you call him and ask the hard questions, he won't bite, and maybe once you have spent some time with the man or gotten to know something about him, then you can rip him a new one.

There will not be and can't be any formal press release communication with the public during a quiet period such as this and as I stated previously the mill equipment issue is a long standing dispute (years old) between Hecla and ECU and settlement is this deal, duh! You can't buy the mill and not have the issue settled.

I didn't rough you up, you'll know when I do and I wasn't angry just stating what I saw. I simply stated what you were doing with no rah rah involved. I've stated my views on the traders, manipulators and dumpers many times. It's also their money and I guess they can do as they please, my only problem is when they say one thing and do another or purposly try to manipulate people where they want them like at Chithouse.

I can't see how your solution of having no one buy accomplishes anything but drives the price down further but if people choose not to that is there perogative and it matters not to me as none of this will matter if one takes a longer term perspective, as I do. I suspect people are buying because the stock is cheap and if they aren't in the financing these very same hedge funds dumping all over us have given people an excellent entry point. BTW, I never expected the hedgies would sell this low to play the warrant game but it seems they have.