I just came off a call from Doug Belanger, CEO of GRZ. He was pretty upbeat and was happy to answer my questions.

The reason that the ICSID oral hearing was kept confidential was because Venezuela demanded it be kept private. As far as Gold Reserve was concerned they would have been happy to have the whole thing recorded and made public, but for that to happen both parties had to agree.

He also felt that the judges were efficient and fair in their rulings and that there would be few grounds for any later challenge from Venezuela to the final decision.

They are still open to dialog with Venezuela but apparently there are few decisions coming out of there these days.

Of real interest to the shareholders, was GRZ's future intentions. Doug was absolutely adamant that the company intended to return the cash from the settlement directly to the shareholders in the most tax efficient manner possible, and they have already had experts looking into the best way to achieve this.

He could not speculate on a timetable for settlement, but he was not concerned about the convertable bond holders who have the option to cash out their positions for one day in June or alternatively let them run.