i doubt the market is giving kinross any valuation at all for the aurelian assets. it looks to me like kinross is being valued on its quarterly gold production and profitability. for now at least, ecuador is just a tiny portion of the kinross portfolio of assets, and fruta del norte is still years away from production.

but in the long run this is excellent news (at least until correa changes things again.) the companies that will benefit the most are those with advanced projects like dynasty and corriente. what the govenment of ecuador has done is remove some uncertainty from the companies that are already there, by establishing some guidelines on what the royalties and taxes will be. but the specifics will still be determined by company-by-company negotiations with the government.

since there is still considerable risk as to how those negotiations will turn out, i don't expect to see a flurry of exploration companies rushing into ecuador. until the government acutally proves it is willing to do business, why would any new explorer start drilling in ecuador, especially in the current market? so the companies like kinross, that are already established there, will benefit two ways. first, they will have a contract spelling out the details, and second there won't be a lot of new competition moving into the country.