Cividale, I greatly respect your opinions and I think there is good reason to be cautious. I do think that there is one difference between all the previous false starts and now besides the obvious one of bringing in a heavy hitting partner with lots of financial and political clout. For the first time, there is much talk among government officials of making gold production a major part of the country's economic plan with actual targets in terms of gold production being discussed. These are not just the locals or the NA, these are high government officials with clout (of course, Chavez is the only one with real clout). So, it seems that it really is in the best interests of all - VZLA, KRY, and the Chinese for the permit to be issued and mining to begin.