A great post 99921 and like you and others here I also have owned and operated my own private company with the big long hours plus prior to that worked for publically traded companies. I can say absolutely being private is preferential. The companies that will offer the greatest returns in the future in the silver/gold sector will be those generating consistant cashflow that provides some self sufficiency with large upside resource growth potential. Management is positioning ECU for this outcome and has all the ingredients for superior success. This is a change in strategy responding to a dramatically changed financial environment in the world with the previous approach primarily focussed on building a monster resource and secondarily on cashflow.

The opportunity to exploit the nearby mill presented itself and allowed a much easier transition into becoming a larger producer immediately as opposed to longer term building of a much more costly and expensive operation with associated larger dilution. Circumstances have changed and so has ECU and I expect the company will be communcating the new strategy and objectives for 2009 as soon as regulatory conditions allow and I look forward to this. I understand completely now why this hasn't been forthcoming as strategy developement, deals and financings were being negotiated making communication of the above impossible until completion. These quiet periods are quite normal and not always well understood by shareholders especially if protracted which I understand this has been.

The size of the existing resource at 431 million silver eq. ounces is very large and we all know the potential upside (at least 1 billion ounces and probably larger)and how effective ECU managment has been at converting potential to a higher degree of confidence. The funds/institutions know this as well but want the second part, more solid proof at how profitable it is or can be especially in this new world. The trick will be showing the above to get more stock price appreciation without attracting too much outside interest just yet from mid sized to large mining companies many of which already are well aware of ECU resource build and further growth upside of this large resource.

My interest is the end game takeout offer but I would obviously like to maximize my return and this means time and patience. I have always maintained this is my strategy as opposed to trading like lots of others. End game returns can be very profitbale, much more so than trading for dimes and I have done this many times over the last 20 years or so. I have also traded my way out of huge returns on a few occasions thinking I was some hot shot trader type putting dimes in my pocket and leaving $20 dollar bills on the table and this on stories I really liked and knew better on. My last end game takeouts were QGX and Duvernay (DDV) last summer (QGX purchased pre IPO & IPO on DDV) with my first purchases in QGX at .25 cents with a $5 takeout. I know this makes me a bagholder, value buyer, long term investor type but it works for me and that's why I continue to buy ECU, for what I think offers all the traits I look for on a takeout story scenario.