"I actually think the news surrounding an actual productive mine is more beneficial to the SP than drill results at this point. After all, that's why Tyhee's price is so absurd...the lack of confidence in this becoming productive before gold crashes."

I agree with the first statement re mine development steps. I think they will be as (or perhaps more imortant to the marketplace) than ounces.

I have my own view on the second statement however. We are (IMO) in a unique period. All the world is operating on meaningless paper currency. The U.S. government can no longer even define what a dollar is since silver has been taken out of the money supply. The "dollar" (which can't be defined) is the world reserve currency. Tied to it to some degree, all the currencies of the world are in danger. They will crash with it. Hence gold or possibly gold and silver will become money once again. We will probably still use paper for transactions but that paper will have to be backed by a reasonable percentage of real metal to be accepted as currency. This time after topping gold and silver will retain a high portion of the value they achieve unlike 1980.

The history of "money" has repeated many times in human history. It starts off with something tangible as money. Then bankers (to protect the wealth) lure the money into banks for safekeeping and issue a receipt for the money. Then the receipts begin trading as currency because they are still redeemable for the money in the bank. Eventually the bankers issue far more receipts than there is currency to back them up. Next, the receipts continue to trade as money with absolutely no backing. Finally people discover the "emporer has no clothes" and the entire system of paper money/receipts crashes and the stupidity game resets for its next repeat. Bankers are born and bred knowing this game and they always make certain that privately they own lots of gold before the crash comes.

For quite a while after the crash people remain leery of paper (perhaps a generation or two) as the memory of the calamity is fresh. The metals are still held as dear and valuable for quite some time. The U.S. was fighting the banking system for 125 years or so before its politicians gave in and allowed the Federal Reserve to illegally take control of the monetary system; supplanting the system that had kept prices reasonably stable all those years. (Exceptions to that stability occurred during periods of war but the gold standard forced the government to eventually correct the imbalance that the war caused). That last stage is where we are now. Pure useless paper money with no backing but the full faith and promise of the governments to tax their citizens to death which they are doing quite litterally.

The tone of anger regarding the monetary system is not directed at you christo64. Your post was just the springboard for me to get off a good rant at the monetary injustice we all face.

P.