I am not expecting any surprises when the Q1 numbers are presented by ECU next month. However I own shares of another junior with similar polymetallic ore that averages 115 g/t silver plus lead, zinc, and copper credits. This is not unlike the run of mill material that ECU is processing. The difference is that this other junior is running over 40,000 tons per month, and therefore the cost per ton numbers are much lower. Given the total resource on the books for ECU, I would think that its not an issue for Velardena to yield that kind of production level, at least from the wider zones or the mineralized corridor that has been defined. To my mind, the operating results from the company are neither here nor there right now because we are processing just a tiny fraction of the resource potential for this project, even with the new mill. And of that production, dilution is limiting the head grade.

As a company, ECU can generate marginal earnings to fund the exploration phase, but they will have to develop higher grade stopes and do better to limit the dilution from waste rock. That is what I will be focused on when the earnings numbers come out. The bottom line is not all that important to me, since I think the company will always struggle to turn a profit running just a few hundred tons per day through the mill.

cheers!

mike