I called our recently hired investor relations person Mark Butler today and got right thru. His ecu number is either 416-366-2428 or 905-602-4248. I previously hesitated to call Stephen Altmann due to his heavy work load. I also never called the investor relations consultant when we had one because I figured they would not have current and detailed info. Because of these previous conditions I am glad we hired Mark and think it was a good move for the company.

Mark impressed me as a smart guy and an excellent communicator. His expertise is currently in the financial side of the business, but I think he will pick up on the mining details quickly. He told me he is a major shareholder in ECU, so his new job is mutually beneficial to both himself and the company. I told him that the recent hire of 3 management level people indicates that the company is finacially expecting good things. He said that one of the two new mine / milling managers is highly regarded and should be great for the mine, but I can't remember which of the two he was talking about.

Mark also told me they are working on what to do with excess gold pyrite generated from the sulphide mill, and once that is solved they will be able to run the mill at its full capacity of 350 tpd. He feels that investors are waiting for this issue before buying heavilly. We currently have 8,500 ounces of gold in the pyrite. After we talked it hit me that the real issue is that 90% of ECU's metals are sulphides, so we will need to address the gold pyrite before growing to an 1500 or 5000 tpd operation.

Regarding the upcoming scoping study, Mark said that ECU has supplied their consultant with all necessary data and he expects the consultant to give us a completion date soon.