This was a very good news release due to many factors including the high silver grade of 324 g/t, the good width of 3.8 meters, and the shallow access at level 12. Using current metal prices and the reported average grades, this ore contains $532.17 worth of metal per tonne. Using 60% recovery for the gold and silver, and 50% for the lead and zinc, revenues would be $317.19/tonne and the sulphide mill running full out at 320 tpd would yield $9.135 million per quarter. If the mineralization is mined for 100 meters strike and depth, production from this vein alone is over $30 million worth. Most veins at this mine have been found to be over 400 meters strike and 900 meters depth, so this vein alone is probably worth over $1 billion.

The only thing that seperates ECU from an Endeavor Silver or a First Majestic is vein width and a high tonnage modern sulphide mill. The lack of vein width is somewhat balanced by our high grade, the large number of veins at our mines and the fact that at high metal prices what counts is quantity. If the ore is worth $300/tonne it makes little difference if the mining cost is $70/tonne for narrow veins vs $50/tonne for wider veins. That leaves the lack of a high tonnage modern sulphide mill as our main problem. While we have a 550 tpd oxide mill, 95% of our ore is sulphides, so that is where the action is at. Also, most of our gold and much of our silver produced by our current sulphide mill is contained in the gold pyrite which we have to ship to a 3rd party for further refining. If our gold and silver recovery from the sulphide mill is 60% and the 3rd party pays us 70%, our net is only 42% which is hard to turn a profit on. From what I understand, the proposed 1500 tpd sulphide mill would also be able to process the gold pyrite which would result in much improved profit to us.