On the first day of my stay we went to see one of ECU's secondary mines (San Diego) which is not in production yet. It is now a resource of about a million tonnes of ore and will come on stream in the future. We will never forget that little excursion. It was not like the way to San Jose. Bumpiest ride any of us ever took. We had already ridden for some time to reach the area and now had been on this bumpy path for 1 1/2 hours. Had not seen an animal, much less a person during that time. As we went through a small tunnel in a mountain to reach the mine, low and behold, there was a parked cab driver. Just sitting there as if waiting for a fare. We could not believe our eyes. Had he taken a wrong turn in Mexico City? Had he been there for years waiting for a fare? A big belly laugh for all.

The next day our cast of characters was assembled to visit ECU's Valardena underground silver mine. This cast included:

Jim Culver- The Executive Director of IIG ( The International Investment Group ). Jim was formerly in charge of Merrill Lynch's gold operations for 18 years. IIG loaned ECU $2 million in December to go into commercial production.

Patrick Paird- President of Global Equities in Paris, France. His firm is the biggest independent brokerage firm in France and they are a major investor in ECU. Patrick is well versed about the gold and silver mining business having been a Director of Burns Frye (the forerunner to Nesbitt Burns).

Merlin Bingham- President of Medalline Mining Company. Hailing out of Coeur D' Alene, Idaho, Merlin has a significant silver project in Mexico himself. Merlin's claim to fame is that he discovered the biggest massive sulfide in the world called Greens Creek in the Yukon. Merlin is a Café member

David Morgan- For 10 years, David was the highly regarded gold mining analyst for Lehman Brothers in London. Prior to that he did project and investment evaluations for Consolidated Gold Fields. David is also a Café member and will be writing an institutional type of analysis of ECU which we hope to have up at the Dos Passos Table.

Peter Pojtos- The former President of Greenstone Resources and now an Independent Director of Mining Companies. Peter hails from Lakewood, Colorado and knows the mining business cold.

Then there was my friend, Blake Joyner, a gold and silver broker for First Albany Securities in Chicago, Andre-St Michel, President of ECU and myself.

To properly go into an underground mine, it is important to have the right gear. Thus, we were outfitted. We looked like a bunch of astronauts as we were issued bright blue, shiny body suits. Then came the white miner's cap with miner's lamp, a heavy belt that supported a heavy battery for the lamp, heavy thick gloves, boots with a steel toe, and surgical masks to keep dust inhalation to a minimum.

Looking like we were ready for another planet, we started our trek to deep into the mountain. Just after we entered the tunnel, we passed a lit candle which highlighted a statue of the miner's patron Saint, Santa Barbara. The tunnel followed a set of rail car tracks that were laid to transport the ore tonnage out of the mountain by grandby cars. We were to go horizontally one mile into the mountain. At this stage of the game, compressed air minimized air problems, but I kept hitting my head on rock outcrops protruding from the ceiling of the tunnel (thank God for the miner's cap). Along this route I saw and learned about-access areas (vertical shafts), drifts ( horizontal access areas ), and stopes (the area to be mined).

We finally reached a huge hoist that operated the skip that was to take us down in the bowels of the mine. This skip (an open platform of sorts) was to take us down 100 meters so that we could see the various mining levels. It was a bit intimidating to say the least. All I could see was a black hole and to get on the skip you had to swing around the platform (above the black hole) and hold on. Yikes!! There are probably still indentations on the rail of the platform which I clung onto for dear life. Down we went.

The hoist operator sent us down in good order. The need for great intensity as to every step taken did not let up, however. Arriving just meant that we could climb down rickety wooden ladders that surrounded more crevices. This mine is a high grade narrow vein one and the veins twist and turn all over the place. Andre wanted us to see all of them. The miners were working in various stopes and access was difficult. The passage ways were only 12" wide at some points and you had to turn sideways to pass on. Some of the party stopped right there as then the rest of us had to pass through spots on all fours and very close to the ground. When I tried to go up a slope, I would fall back and rocks and dirt would follow. My face was now brown, not white.

Was I beginning to develop a healthy respect for the miners! This was truly tough work and obviously, very dangerous. One careless mistake could end it all. There, they were drilling away and loading the ore to be taken out of the mountain. In some respects, just like the conquistadors did hundreds of years ago and in this same area, maybe the same mine. The miners were preparing the dynamite to blast away after we left and the air in this section had deteriorated big time. As water was being used in the mining process here, we were now wading through mud puddles.

There were more precarious moments. I could go on for hours, but suffice to say, I hope to have conveyed to you the exhilaration and trepidation of this experience. Those of us that had never been in an underground mine before were in awe of the miners and the potential danger that they faced every day. It is incredibly hard work and a throwback to the days of another era. Funny enough, they have been mining silver in the Durango area for 500 years and have just scratched the surface. That is why well known Mexican silver producers, IMMSA and Penolas, have done so well in Mexico.

Upon finally surfacing from the silver mine, we saintered down from our 6,000 feet altitude for a hearty lunch at ECU's ore processing mill. This impressive structure is processing about 450 tonnes a day at the moment and should hit a stride of 600 tonnes per day by mid summer. As it does, the equivalent cash silver cost which is about $3.57 per oz. will plummet to about $1.97 by mid sumer. It does not get much better than that number.

David Morgan will write up an institutional type of report on ECU and we hope to present that to you at www.lemetropolecafe.com upon completion, but Midas will throw out some of the more salient points about this operation and what appealed to me. The ECU business plan calls for a cash flow of about $500,000 to $600,000 per month by mid summer. With a market cap of about $10 million and a cash flow of $6 to $7 million, you get a pretty decent P/E ratio. And that is at $5 silver. Midas is no analyst, but I see this stock trading at $1 by early summer and then it should go on from there. Do not have to be Einstein to see this is one undervalued stock.

All of the pros on this excursion were impressed with Andre St-Michel and the management team Andre put together. All of my colleagues on the trip know mining companies that are promoted by great salesman that are CEO's. But you would not catch them in an underground mine. When Andre is in Mexico, he goes into the mine every day to direct his team. He loves it. This is very important in a narrow vein mining operation as the veins weave and bob all over the place. The more experience that can be put to use in this type of operation, the better. The professional group that I was with loved this aspect of his management style and felt that was a good part of the investment appeal of ECU.

This company will be built on cash flow. It will build positive momentum, even in this dreadful mining environment. It will build one step at a time adding silver reserves along the way. As Merlin Bingham said, " This is one fine operation and I can already see a 16 year mine life." Patrick Paird, " I am not sure if I want the price of silver to go up right now. With an operation like this, we can become very profitable in the months to come and then go out and acquire more silver resources very cheaply." And as Jim Culver put it, "I have very high confidence in Merrill Lynch's former top notch gold mining analyst, Warren Myers. He came down here and said this was a winner. That is why we have put our money behind it. Looks like Warren was right again."

Many things can go wrong with a mining operation. Last March, there was a fire in a shaft that killed an ECU miner. ECU has plenty of cash in the bank in such an eventuality, but there is always a risk of the unexpected. Knowing that, Midas is thrilled that he has bet the Mexican ranch on this silver operation in the Sierra Madres.

***

That had to be the worst report on a stock ever in regards to what happened. The CEO was soon replaced by the mine manager, Michel Roy, whom I am still fond of.

Long story short. The stock was 23 cents at the time. Then it went to zero and closed down for six months. AND THEN, it went to $3. Life was good. Some of you might remember the photographer who shot a cover for Time Magazine of the Vietnamese girl fleeing a napalm attack during the war in Vietnam. It was a historic Tony Sherman photo. He used to be a Café member and told me he sold out his ECU silver position at $2.99 on that very day … a genius move based on his own technical work. He was a friend of my good friend Tony Willson, one of the great guys and brokers in all of Canada. Tony put GATA on the map in Toronto back in those days. Sadly, both he and his fab, babe assistant Judith McGee died one after another years back.

The knock on ECU, and now Golden Minerals, was that what they had in the ground, hundreds of millions of ounces of silver, was too expensive to mine. The short sellers won the day. But that may have all changed if this astounding report is true. From what I am told, most silver companies need $23 to $25 silver to be profitable. One of the exceptions is First Majestic, which only needs $16 to cut it.

Well, this is what Golden Minerals put out today…

Golden Minerals To Restart Velardena Mining In July 2014

GOLDEN, Colo., June 18, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Golden Minerals Company ("Golden Minerals" or the "Company") (NYSE MKT: AUMN) (TSX: AUM) today announced plans for a July 2014 restart of mining at its Velardena Properties located in Durango state, Mexico. Once mining and processing are ramped up to approximately 285 tonnes per day (tpd) of sulfide ore in mid-2015, the Company expects output of approximately 1.0 to 1.2 million silver equivalent ounces per annum (including silver and gold but excluding lead and zinc), with cash costs between $12 and $15 per silver ounce net of by-product credits. Golden has completed a 9,000-meter drill program at Velardena in vein systems located largely outside the currently defined Canadian National Institute NI 43-101 compliant resource. That drill program represents the first known drilling of the Terneras vein system sulfides in the area below the historic mine workings. The Company's drilling, mine planning and analysis indicate that positive net cash flow may be achieved at the Velardena Properties at current silver and gold prices. An independent engineering firm participated in the preparation of the mining plan…