Hi Scout!

I am puzzled by your statements. The shorts cannot force the price of ECU down if the deal is approved. Regardless of how low ECU trades, when the transaction closes ECU goes off the board and shareholders will get a fixed number of AUM shares. The same is true if ECU trades way higher. If you hold your ECU shares until closing, you get about 1 for 20 and hold AUM thereafter. No big deal. However for those who were short and did not deliver, they have a big problem. They must buy the ECU shares in the market to cover that short before the transaction date.

Imagine if buyers own 500,000,000 shares of ECU. Some of those are legitimately issued shares from financings. Some would be people who bought from naked shorts. The shares were fully paid for and never delivered. The shorts are now forced to buy that stock and deliver it to the buyers to settle the transaction. Until now we could only speculate on whether naked shorting was a factor. Now all shorts must cover and deliver settlement.

And this statement about us not being able to paricipate in the rewards of development is not true. We own AUM after the deal closes, which is a tight company with a dual listing. If Velardena is accelerated to a much larger mine, the cash flow generated will support a much higher AUM price. We are not minority players in this deal. Its a win-win.

What price I was able to buy more wrts is completely irrelevant to the discussion. I also own shares and if the stock drops lower I will buy more. This is not a flip trade its a recognition of great value here that I am happy to accumulate as an investor. In time I could see AUM rising beyond $100 just on the assets that would be controlled after the merger closes. Look at Silver Standard, the mix of properties and the resource base for a comparison on the value and the potential down the road.

I am not trying to convince anyone of anything here. If you are disgruntled then I have no issue with those who choose to sell. I am bullish and to me its a great deal for shareholders that will build a much stronger company.

cheers!

mike