Let me respond to a couple of your comments yankee. First the company is already back into production and has been working on finalizing the concentrate contract as they store the produced concentrate which is piling up rapidly. In addition ECU has over $25 million dollars of recoverable gold sitting in the old tailings pond which will be produced from in the future. I also note the company just recently increased their loan facility by $10 million dollars as a contingency and it took 2 days and a very few discussions implying it was a complete no brainer. Even the extension of the payment terms on the exsiting loan was easily extended to demonstrate the good relationship that exists with IIG and the confidence the lender has.

The company is constantly offered money from numerous sources but has refrained due to concerns about dilution and sharholder value and a stated strategy that it is not required to complete the 2008 plan. There are many sources of funds available to ECU from deals predicated on future production to convertible debentures to increase loan facilties to JV's and equity financing. The fact is that ECU has to beat off offers of capital with a stick and this may be hurting the share price since some Baystreeters think we have to take their money. The truth is the increased loan facility was an attempt to provide the contingency and try to get the message across to invesment firms and institutions that their money is not required right now but please buy our stock.

I can state categorically that ECU can raise money whenever they want and whatever amounts they need from short term capital to long term capital but management is trying to do what few other companies do, be responsible to the exisiting shareholders while building a world class and large resource, a tough balancing act. There are many large shareholders of ECU that would easily out up capital if requested or required.

Everyone knows this precious metal stock sectoral malaise will not last but no one knows for sure when it will end but certainly those companies like ECU who have identified a billion ounce potential, as confirmed by Micon and TD Bank, will be the first movers.

I agree with your view that takeovers could light a fire under this sector and I fully expect this to start sooner than later with some signs already showing. In my view the larger entities want ounces and preferrably undeveloped ounces and certainly not small producers producing less than 2000-3000 tpd. They need to add resources which will be instantly valued much higher when moved to a major's inventory much like past successful model employed by Barrick Gold, I note Barrick only bought exisitng production in recent years and previously they always bought companies with large ounce potential they could develop in the future.

To answer your question BigPic the tradeable float is maybe half the outsanding shares with the rest held by long term large shareholders that vary from high networth individuals, wealth management firms, large institutions like RBC/BMO/CPP, investment groups, specialty hedge funds, etc. I have stated this numerous times in the past but not lately. The shares traded would support my view of the public float size.

The big question with ECU is how fast can they convert ounces and how large a future mill operation is required and how will it be rolled out in stages or one big build. Economic viability and access to capital is a no brainer to me. Anyone who questions this has no knowledge about the ECU operation, ECU exploration success or mining for that matter. ECU has the goods for sure but that doesn't mean it will all happen tomorrow, much work is required yet. But having the goods is the most major issue and most juniors simply don't or ever will and that's a fact. We are lucky although I agree the stock price is very frustrating.

Good luck to all.