At first I was surprised at the amount of posters who wouldn´t invest again in Ecuador, but then I realised that most of you are probably under water, unlike myself who used this great opportunity to buy in.

I firmly believe that this sort of thing could have happened anywhere and what is more will happen again. In the last few months environmentalists have got uranium mining banned/halted in Canada with similar results. Also do not believe the Mexican/N. American fans who say that this sort of thing could never happen there - a bit of political/economic difficulty could lead to any kind of foolish utterances.

The need for a clear up in the Ecuadorian mining situation was clear, but to do it in such a way creating overall uncertainty can only be put down to incompetence or an alternative agenda. I am quite convinced that it has to be the latter - the agenda being creating an opportunity for certain people to buy in cheaply (and yes a buyout would not be a surprise after this). As for the Ecuadorian politics angle, I´m sure they already have more than a little influence there. If I´m right they were involved in the whole scheme.

This is the second post I´ve made here (the first was about 5 weeks ago), but I´ve been following the forum closely. Thanks for the great output - it was crucial in my buying in to ARU. There are many indications that things are slowly resolving themselves (even if you don´t swallow my conspiracy view) - the draft law etc. Please let me mention one that I don´t think has been listed here before : if you go to DMM´s homepage you will see pictures of Correa visiting the Zaruma plant on April 28 2008. Ask yourself would he visit a someone he had just stabbed in the back?? and would he be made welcome?? For me it´s a clear signal, but........ you never know.

Patience is a virtue.

Keep up the good work.

Zykk

BTW- I´m a DMM investor and came here originally looking for info as the DMM forum is as good as dead.