...is the way that it doesn't seem to exist.

If you remember, back a couple of Fridays ago when the Constitutional Assembly passed its mandate, one of the articles was "everyone downs tools for the next 180 days". Assembly head Alberto Acosta even mentioned some of the Canadian miners by name after the vote, saying that they'd have to stop right now. So far, at least three companies have made it abundantly clear that their work is continuing as normal.

1) Corriente Resources (CTQ.to) that has consistently said "business as usual" as they prove up their large copper project at Mirador.

2) Aurelian Resources (ARU.to), my favourite Ecuador stock has sent mails to shareholders that say it is still drilling and working at Fruta del Norte.

3) Dynasty Metals (DMM.to) played host to Studmuffin Correa over the weekend, and was clearly working away in front of the President's own eyes.

Somebody mailed me on this subject today, and so your humble Otto made a couple of discreet inquiries on the matter. And the upshot of it seems to be that to put the decree into action, Ecuador's Ministry of Mines and Petroleum has to sign a so-called "execution order" which is then sent to the relevant mining company telling it to stop what it's doing. Until this order is signed and delivered, the mining company is in its rights to continue working. The thing is that apparently those execution orders have not been signed and delivered by mining minister Galo Chiriboga.

Why that is so is another story, and frankly I don't have the reason nor do I have any sourced scuttlebutt on it. But after seeing Correa get the guided tour of the DMM project, there's little doubt that the Prez knows full well that the miners are working. Is there some sort of collusion between Correa and Chiriboga to ignore (for as long as they can) the assembly mandate article? That'd certainly be my best guess....what do you think?