ECU got hit harder than it should have with all of that new paper coming to market this month. Now the stock is trading up the last 2 days while most other juniors are in corrective mode. We have short covering support to allow the shares to drift higher, and a lot of retail shareholders were sold out during the month and hence are not a factor while the metals are weak.

I expect a strong bounce in gold and silver shortly as this usual monthly takedown is not going to do more than put a scare in the traders, IMO. There is too much buying presure looking for physical bullion worldwide, and too much uncertainty in the world economy to allow more than a sharp correction in the metals, and we have pretty much gone through that. The first big uptick day for gold and silver, look for new buying to step back up in the juniors, including ECU.

Lastly, we have the confirmation coming for the completed acquisition of the mill. With the money in hand, ECU can close that deal and have the cash held in escrow deployed to fund the purchase. That should also put a kick in the trading for ECU shares, removing the last uncertainty from this deal, and perhaps building in the expectation for operating revenues should thereafter.

I suppose the threat of a more sustained breakdown in gold and silver is always out there, but I just do not see that coming on this correction. We are still in one the strongest seasonal periods for the metals, and the underlying fundamentals in the economy are piss poor, one of the factors that has been driving demand for gold for several months. Trotting out stimulus packages and bailouts is going to generate a short bounce in the financials but it will not solve the problems and hence the next round of fear and flight to bullion is always just around the corner.

cheers!

mike