There are rumours amoungst the analysts and news letter writers that the bigger miners are starting a shopping spree in the juniors.

Now if I were going shopping for a particular asset, where would I like to start the bargaining, at a high asset value or when the stock price was in the sewer ? If I had multi billion dollars at my disposal, why not spend a few million to short the stock down to a favourable starting point to give me an advantage and a lever to pry the final price down to a few million less than it is really worth. ( and brag to my cronies how I stole the asset for so much less than it was worth)

Steve Altman's job is to be a good bargainer and bluffer with a phrase such as "If you don't want to give us fair value I guess we'll just have to go it alone."

This is where a President and his board of directors mettle gets tested.

I think our management is up to doing the job.

sc