Thanks to Argoz...a refresher:

Conclusions from ECU's NI43-101 posted on Sedar

Conclusions from ECU's NI43-101

Based on this the MI&I is 430.729 million ounces Ag equiv and the potential has an upper projection of 1,252.487 million ounces Ag equiv. The grand total is therefore 1,683.216 million ounces Ag equiv. If we convert this to gold equivalent at the current 75 to 1 it is 22.443 million ounces gold equivalent

Metal and Company values for ECU's NI43-101

posted on Dec 11, 08 02:11AM

I had a chance to completely read today's ECU news release for their updated NI 43-101 resource study. First, I read that the resource includes ECU's 50% share of San Diego, so that does not need to be added. Also I read a footnote that the resource is adjusted already for the anticipated metal recovery rates. A couple of observations before we get to the numbers. First is that ECU's resource is about 25% from the San Deigo property and the remaining 75% is from the fully owned main property and the Chicago property. While the resource report from San Diego was awesome, the grades from the fully owned main and Chicago properties are about 50% better for the measured+indicated+inferred (M+I+I)and are about 30% better for the potential resources. Second is that the news release stated the metal content cutoff values were $25/tonne for bulk mining greater than 2.7 meters wide and $45/tonne for narrow veins with veins less than 1 meter wide diluted for a 1 meter minimum excavation. If we assume that 1/4 of the tonnage is bulk mining and 3/4 of the tonnage is narrow mining, then the average mine and mill cost is $40/tonne. I like to be conservative so I have used a cost of $45/tonne in the cost analysis. Third is that the mineral potential does not include values for zinc, lead, or copper. The report stated that general silver and gold value for the mines totals 66% of the total value. I think that the base metal value in the massive sulphides will be at least 34%, so we can assume that the potential resource is 2/3 gold and silver and 1/3 base metals. The potential mineral resource can than be increased 50%. Fourth, the report explained that the actual mineral content of some mined stopes was 300% or 4 times that of the drill assays. I don't know if this was due to poor assaying or dilution of the drill core contents due to the vein being decomposed rock or similiar. If this descrepency turns out to occur throughout the mine then we don't have a silver mine, we have a gold mine! Below is a cut and paste from the news release which details this finding:

"Furthermore, an additional 75,693,747 ounces silver-equivalent was added to both the minimum and maximum to reflect the fact that gold and silver grades from actual stopes were significantly higher than grades from drill holes that defined those blocks prior to mining them. The increase was material in all cases and averaged approximately 300% using four well documented cases. Using the three smallest increases for gold and silver, the average increase obtained was 93% for gold and 134% for silver. This difference was applied to the 6,207,471 tonnes grading 3.05 g/t gold and 146 g/t silver representing the inferred resources at Santa Juana which were based uniquely on drill-hole information, yielding the potential increase mentioned above."

Also, ECU should be commended on a well prepared and presented news release. The release described the resource methodology well and the tables clearly detailed the amounts and grades of the resource and showed how the resource has dramatically increased over the last few years.

Measured + Indicated + Inferred

Mineral Resource = 430.729 million ounces Ag Equiv

Tonnage = 30,469,000 tonnes

Average Ag Equiv Grade = 14.14 oz/tonne

Average Metal Value = $197.91/tonne

Life of Mine with 5,000 tpd Mill = 16.7 years

Measured + Indicated + Inferred + Max Potential increased 50% for Base Metals

Mineral Resource = 1,826.33 million ounces Ag Equiv.

Tonnage = 117,655,000 tonnes

Average Ag Equiv Grade = 15.52 oz/tonne

Average Metal Value = $217.32/tonne

Life of Mine with 10,000 tpd mill = 32.23 years

Mine and Mill Cost = $45/tonne

Profit = $172.32/tonne

Total Profit over Life of Mine = $20,274,309,600

Profit per Year = $629,050,872

Market Cap Value Using 10 to 1 PE = 6,290,508,719

Projected Market Cap/Resource = $3.44/ounce

ECU Shares Fully Diluted = 263,584,807

Estimated Value per ECU Share = $23.86/share

Current ECU Price U.S. $ = $0.767/share

Current Market Cap/Ag Equiv = $0.11/ounce

San Diego NI 43-101 Metal Values

posted on Dec 10, 08 01:43PM

Todays news release from Golden Tag on the San Diego NI 43-101 mineral resource was spectacular. The previous resource estimate from January 28, 2008 contained 42.384 million ounces silver equivalent indicated plus inferred (I+I). Today's San Diego resource estimate contains 222.39 million ounces silver equivalent which is more than a 5 fold increase in less than one year. Heck, the San Diego mineral resource for I+I is now larger than the January 24, 2008 estimate for ECU's Velardena property. I have broken down the mineral values below for this news release. I used the metal dollar values used by Golden Tag in the news release which are basically the 3 year trailing average prices.

Indicated + Inferred

Mineral Resource = 222.39 million ounces Ag equiv

Tonnage = 22,009,466 tonnes

Average Ag equiv grade = 10.10 ounces per tonne

Average Metal Value = $141.46 per tonne

Life of mine with 3,000 tpd mill = 20.1 years

Indicated + Inferrred + Max Potential

Mineral Resource = 611.89 tonnes

Tonage = 64,362,206 tonnes

Average Ag equiv grade = 9.51 ounces per tonne

Average Metal Value = $133.14 per tonne

Life of mine with 5,000 tpd mill = 35.3 years

Profit I+I+Max Potential

Narrow vein mine + mill cost = $45/tonne per previous NI 43-101, use $50/tonne

Profit = $83.14/tonne

Total Profit over life of mine = $5,351,074,000

Profit per Year = $151,600,000

Value using 10 to 1 PE = $1,516,000,000

Value per Ag Equiv Oz = $2.48/ounce

10 to 1 PE times 50% each company = $757,950,000

Resource converted to Company Share Price

Value per Company = $757,959,000

ECU Shares Fully Dilluted = 263,584,807

Value per ECU Share = $2.88

Golden Tag Shares Outstanding = 39,770,000

Value per Golden Tag Share = $19.06

Needless to say the current ECU and Golden Tag share prices are way undervalued based on their resource at San Diego and their potential profit.

Section 19.0 INTERPRETATION AND CONCLUSIONS

“With the conclusion of its latest exploration program ECU has been able to conduct a second

mineral resource estimate on its Velardeña properties

….The lead and zinc mineralization for those blocks located within the oxide portion of the veins was not taken into account in the estimation of the silver

equivalent cut-off.”