I asked Dave Webb about his thoughts on JP's 'junior buyouts are best' [for shareholders] sentiment, the one JP expressed today on the Q-Line.

Here's Dr. Webb's paraphrased reply.

Not all juniors are in the same boat. There are juniors with 2 to 3 million ounce deposits but have no economic studies, or poor economic studies. Then there are those with robust PA's, prefeasibility, or feasibility studies completed. They're very different from each other. Juniors in the first two groups have limited hope in raising money in this environment. However, at present, many juniors in the last group are raising funds, and he felt that eventually all of them will be able to raise funds sometime in the future.

Dr. Webb reminded me that Tyhee completed a positive PA that included many items done to a prefeasibility level. And he added that the cost to take the economic and engineering studies to the next level is not very great.

Dave thought that JP's comment that a buyout would be best is likely aimed at companies in the lowest two tiers of development and not aimed at companies in the top two tiers unless one's time horizon is measured in days and weeks rather than months and years.

B.