While the burn rate is noteworthy, I'm assuming some of that "burn" will be refocused Mexico-way, given what AUM thinks they have just acquired (after all, they did not want to merge with us for our cash reserves, cash flow, brilliant management or even our good looks!). Thus, they chose ECU because of one thing - proven and potential reserves.

One way or another, AUM management must think they can monetize the ECU reserves. If they are wrong, then they made a huge miscalculation and bet a huge amount of money on it. Maybe AUM felt they were tying up what amounts to an option to buy ECU, pending full knowledge and analysis of the current deep drilling program. If so, then if AUM does not pull the plug on the merger, you can bet they can do more than smell the money coming from Durango, they can probably taste it! I forget what the walkaway fee is (I assume there is one if either party attempts an end-around at this point), but it surely is a pittance compared with completing the merger and diluting AUM's stock by 50%.

I don't know if we get drill results before merger time or not, but I will feel pretty good about things if that merger goes through. If nothing else, we should actually be presented with the financial resources to see if what we have is what we thought we had all along. Can't reasonably ask for too much more than that.