Gents,

I'm certainly not selling La Balsa short. It's a nice little earner. Nice location; great infrastructure. Too bad BCU has absolutely no cash; it needs some $9 million minumum needed to get it producing. And yes, it's still open as well.

But as the girls say on Soi Cowboy, "No money, no honey."

And while La Balsa's relatively small size would have been great to fund Bell's exploration and running expenses, that same smallness makes it less attractive for a mid tier to come it. They tend to want projects of more substance. That's not to say it can't happen, but again I tend not to use "hope" as my strategy. And I'm sure that BL has been trying for months to get someone interested. It used it last private placement proceeds to support Kabba, not La Balsa...that speaks volumnes.

So right now La Balsa hardly matters.

The real question: how long can Bell survive?

Its strategy now is to have a discovery at Kabba. But if these 5 wells find nothing more than indicators and some evidence that may support Dr. Marsh's theories -- but no actual copper or moly -- what then?

Another round of financing from the legacy investors? Would you put more money into BCU with all that you know now?

With a stock hovering at around a dime a share we're diluting our share structure each month just to pay the bank interest. And of course how long will the bank also continue to want watered down BCU shares if no Kaba hit is made?

I read a report today with an analyst predicting $3 copper. That's the good news. The not so good news is that this price is a 2010 forecast price.

I think we have to take a long hard look in the mirror -- no wishful dreamin' fellas -- and ask how many "months" does Bell have left.

For Bell, 2010 is a long long time away.