at this point it's all speculation, and i hope the truth comes out someday. while patrick may not have the negotiating skills you mention, they had others on the board whom they brought in for that purpose.

and i think the big producers know exactly what fruta del norte has. aurelian (at least in the early days) divulged more information on every drill hole than you could possibly want. maps, diagrams, pictures of core samples, and so on...it was all there on the web site, at least until they removed everything. in addition, at least a dozen companies had confidentiality agreements, so aurelian's assets were well known.

it is entirely possible that one of the majors will gobble up kinross to get aurelian, but i think that's like going shopping for a half-gallon of milk and buying a cow instead. they could have bought aru by itself, and not gotten involved with any kinross problems like exposure to russia.

tye burt and the other ceo's must have a much better understanding of geopolitical risk than i do, because the kinross deal and lack of any other offers make no sense to me.