Excellent read Spiny. Thank you for sharing your worthy thoughts and a wisdom that comes from experience...and a good deal of intelligence. I am always looking for credible, empirical information as are so many others. It helps me to try to stay objective, although I admit at times to being loyal to a fault and can be somewhat myopic when self-convinced and perhaps a little too emotional about some investments. I just wish I could remember it all. Sigh, no such luck so for me, review is necessary from time to time. Reports such as yours and others certainly remind me to get with it for my own good.

We have some valuable contributors here...just as they do at another site I have frequented for ten years now...on various bulloards over that time.

I share your sentiments with respect to SFMI. Perhaps I differ in my optimistic expectations for this stock because they are a bit over the top. One could say I have made a major error in judgement that one could attribute to a novice investor. That is the fact that I have seemingly neglected the "management" or "who" factor, usually the primary consideration before all others when making an investment in any private company, especially the junior mining sector. This is a high risk/high reward business, so usually there will be a weakness in the formula of "who, what, where, when and why". I figure tha latter four have pretty good data to back them up with respect to SFMI.

So, "who" are we dealing with? In my opinion only, we have trusted our investments with someone who has a lot to prove and is doggedly determined to do so...and will bugger on regardless of what people think. This man is not out to win a personality contest, so you don't have to like him. With these latest NRs and reports from people on the ground such as LongSFMI, I think we can see the graphic results and progress of a determined man. His is not a quest t be denied by anyoe. He can see the top of the mountain now. What else motivates him that will underpin the hopes of shareholders? The same thing that motivates us...exceedingly handsome profits. Pierre will become a very wealthy man as will those who have initial ties to both companies. Their rewards for all the time, effort, pain and investment will pay off big time. The shareholders still on the bull will also reap rewards. To me it is that simple and Pierre isn't going to risk his last big shot at the brass ring by taking any unnecessary chances. Mistakes yes, but we all make those.

I also think there are very few out there who really understand the stratospheric flight that will take place in the coming months for the junior precious metal sector. This will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for many. The JPMs are, and have been for two or more years, diabolically suppressed and woefully undervalued concomittant to suffering from a serious lack of interest at this time (well engineered by a controlled media and a corrupt regulatory, banking and brokering system). When the table turns, not only (in my opinion) will this sector burst to the surface, it will then commence to overshoot to the extreme upside as the madding hordes flood in...along with the funds, banks, and you-name-it. Hey, they will make the most from it all, so in a strange twist of fate, they will now become our "friends" (gag). I think this could happen with the speed of light because the unnatural pressure to the downside will simply have to be released in an explosive manner. The fundamental law of supply and demand will not be denied. I also think the smart money knows this and is now positioning for just such an event (hence tha massive short and naked shorting for the last few years). The capitalization needed to accomplish this rocket launch is minute when compared to just the mutal fund or bond markets alone...a mere 10 % of that capital would yield an unbelieveable result.

Now think of the leverage the big boys will have to the upside if their tier one capital can be leveraged 20 times and then leveraged again in the derivatives markets...where the big crimes are committed. So, with the so-called fractional reserve banking system reversing from short to long on the physical side of the PMs, the leverage for the stocks of juniors with gold in the ground wll soar. Now, if that junior happens to be a producer...and happens to be developing a large resource such as 5 million ounces of high grade gold equivalent with an infrastructure in place...and happens to have the potential to drill up and discover another several million ounces of high gold equivalent...it will be a very rare investment indeed ... and it will be so far ahead of the upstart explorers. So, pick any of the handful of JPMs you know of that have these attributes and you will be very well rewarded. The examples are starting to pop up now...such as Goldcorp offering $3.40/share for Canplats for a property with diffculties and years away from production with an estimated 3 to 4 million ounces of low grade gold ore. Such offers will soon become much higher as the big producers start to panic for sorely needed production replacemnet in a market of dwindling supply.

In short, the "system" has really jammed the JPM market for their own greed driven reasons. I can't imagine how thrilled they must be to know that they have actually got people thinking that the values of stocks such a SFMI are only worth a nickel, or that an ECU is only worth 80 cents or that an SRG is only worth $3. It is amongst the biggest cons of all time...along with the one that suspects (with growing evidence) that there are now 640,000, 400 ounce gold bars that are really fakes filled with tungsten...and that there is more than as much as 4 times paper promises for owned gold as there is gold.

Supply and demand indeed.

Happy Thanksgiving to all Americans.