In the metals, the story is different again, as we're seeing in the dramatic battle going on with BHP's bid to buy Rio Tinto and the intervention that we received from Chinalco and Alcoa partnership. And what was going on here is a combination of the fact that the big mining companies, more and more, have succumbed to the Chip Goodyear view which is that opening a new mine these days, is not done in a short space of time.

As Chip Goodyear told the Society of Economic Geologists Convention, anybody in this room who still thinks you can open a new mine in the Third World in five years is a menace to your stockholders and to this industry. Figure eight to eleven years to build the schools and the hospitals and the community relationships so that you'll get to keep what you get and it will be welcome as coming into the country. And also the fact that even those that behave well are subject to changes in their operating rules, because countries find ways of changing their tax schedules. Or in the case of Mongolia even before the mine comes in, imposing big new taxes. Therefore it's much simpler when they've got gigantic cash flows to buy each other than it is to take on new risks.

As of four years ago the 25 biggest mining companies of the world were spending the same amount on exploration that they had spent in 1996. They're relying on being able to buy up small mining companies who will find the stuff and then they can assess the political risk and everything and buy those ore bodies. Or in the case of BHP they've said, "Rio Tinto is really cheap because they've got these wonderful mines and we know we can assess the political risk of each of their exposures.
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I would bet that Hudbay take CAA out in the short term..... more cost effective.... maybe thats why the stock went down today rather than up...... skillfull trading with big pockets can move the stock counter to the trend and get sheep to follow!