I sometimes wondered if ECU's market cap of over 330 million dollars might be a hindrance to investors looking to invest in juniors. Perhaps it is, but it is the bush leagues when compared with the big dog majors on the HUI.

After watching ECU get mugged the other day, I decided to check and compare the market caps of the 15 HUI stocks to ECU using data from Yahoo Finance. I was somewhat surprised to discover that the AVERAGE market cap of these 15 stocks is a little over 15 billion bucks. That's 15 billion, with a b. CDE and Rangold are at the bottom, each having market caps of a little under 3 billion, otherwise, without them, the average would be a bit higher. Barrick, of course, is the big gun with a market cap of over 50 billion, Goldcorp next with some 32 billion.

ECU, for whatever reasons, is way, way back there with that market cap of some 334 million. As of the other day, at 10 bucks a share, ECU would move past CDE and Rangold and at roughly 48 bucks would make it to just the middle of the HUI pack at 15 billion.

Doable? Why not? Are all of the HUI companies really that much bigger and better than ECU and deserving that much higher of a market cap?

If ECU has in the ground what it apparently has and becomes a major producer as anticipated, I don't see those stock prices as unreasonable down the road a good piece and something to keep in mind as time goes by. First, however, If there's a suspected gorilla or two sitting on the company and the stock price, they may first have to be tranquilized, then taken behind the barn and shot.

My figures may be off a bit, but if so, it's still an interesting comparison.