First thing you notice is how nice the new convention centre is. Second is how many people are in attendance and how many companies are trying to make you buy their piece of pasture, rain forest, desert, ocean floor, etc. The place was packed and the sleeze factor was rampant. After I made my way through the rows and rows of same old faces, I was expecting the worst for the San Gold booth. I was pleasantly surprised though to find a few new faces and actually relieved that a few other faces were nowhere to be seen.

To make a long story short, even though the sp is in the tank and almost every company that had gold in its name has outperformed SGR by a long shot over the last 12-18 months, I got the feeling that behind the scenes there's an end game in the works where under the old guard there wasn't.

Of note were a few comments, some were off the cuff

- getting to $2 billion will be much faster than the first billion

- felt a takeover won't happen < $6 and a takeover is in the discussion

- 2011 production costs ~ $600/ounce

- WF thinks the RL pencil is there and he's going to find it this spring

- obvious the sp is out of their control given the size of ownership from you know who

- feel the new guy is the missing link between Bay and Bissett

A few other things were mentioned but they escape me. Since I know the story inside and out I wasn't really expecting anything substantial. What stuck is how much more approachable and engaged they were than previous shows. WF is a good guy and exploration is definitely not the problem.

Lets see if option expiry in 2 days has any impact on the sector and turns this ship around.