Based on today's ECU news release, the ore they processed in the 1st month graded 2.05 g/tonne Au and 104 g/tonne Ag. Both of these are substantially below the M&I grades reported in the NI43-101 which are 2.95 g/tonne Au and 162 g/tonne Ag. The reason the processed grades are lower than the resource grades is because ECU ran development ore first in order to fine tune the mill.

Based on the gold and silver content of the dore bars, the gold recoveries are running at 73.7% and the silver recoveries are runing at 55.2%. The latest resource report estimated gold recoveries of 78% and silver recoveries of 58% from the oxide ores. I suspect the first month recoveries are slightly lower due to either the development ore low grades or fine tuning of the plant.

Once the company starts feeding grades equal to the resource report oxide grades, and they run the mill at 500 tpd with recoveries of 78 and 58%, at current gold and silver prices of $950 and $15 per ounce, the company should produce dore with a monthly value of $2,523,714. This substantially exceeds the first month value of $935,000. Also, once the pyrite concentrate is blended with the oxide ore, the value of production will approximately double above the $2.5 million per month value. And last, the resource report grades are average, and as ECU has indicated, if they high grade, then production will increase even more.

I do not have the time tonight to find the smelter fees for the dore bar, but my memeory is that it is given on the companies full NI43-101 report on Sedar and that the charges are only about 3%.

Its all uptown for ECU from here!