Please enlighten me - was, and is, the government of Ecuador not threatening to nationalize or at least severely curtail the mining industry in that country???

Why don't you enlighten me-: where, in what newspaper, or in what government report did you see in any way that the Ecuador government, ie, President Correa was threatening to nationalize or curtail the mining industry?

Ecuador has at the most a very nascent mining industry. Prior to Correa the industry was in disarray, hundreds of concessions given to friends and family of previous governments. Fly by night company's hoping for a quick flip. The stoppage on 18 April was intended to take back concessions that were considered illegal, and to force company's to pay a fair price for their concessions, as they would in any other country. The 180 day stoppage was intended so that a new mining law could be produced that was fair for all parties.

Draft copies of the Law were seen by both Patrick Anderson and Tye Burt, Kinross CEO. Both declared that it seemed to be a workable document. In addition the 3 concession limit that had been bandied about was not evident and there was no wft. Aurelian still had FDN with at the very minimum 13.7m oz, AU. President Correa has stated numerous times that the country needeed a viable mining industry and he intended to ensure that it came about.

Now back to Kinross; unknown to shareholders, Kinross, last Nov/Dec. had been allowed into the ARU data room, as was subsequently discovered Kinross and Aurelian had had a number of meetings even prior to this. Begining in January of this year and on thru March the CEO, Anderson and the BoD began dumping shares, and also in March the co-founder quit the company. At the AGM in June Anderson thanked retail shareholders for hanging in there and supporting the company, (little did we know that as he spoke he had already dumped his shares before the fall that occurred due to the work stoppage). So even as he was encouraging us he had already cleared his own yardarm. Approx. 3 days before the Kinross offer, the BoD very thoughtfully bestowed on themselves roughly 3 million options at $4.65 and when the offer came it was conditional on Kinross being able to purchase 15m shares at $4.75 effectively giving them a good headstart over any competing offer. The offer was declared a friendly offer by the BoD so the poison pill was not initiated. It was after the deal was accepted that Tye Burt declared that the draft of the mining law was a workable document and Patrick Anderson who prior to the deal had declared the same, now began to back off, mumbling about the law and Ecuadorian politics. The only sleazy politics that was around was in the back rooms where Aurelian BoD gathered to fatten their wallets at the expense of the cannon fodder, thats us, the small retail shareholder. Believe me, there was a lot more, but I am rattling this off off the top of my head and don't have notes handy. Whether the work stoppage was the ideal way to remove the scruff from the mining industry is a very arguable point, I personally thought it was ridiculous, but it was certainly nothing compared to the way we retailers were treated by the people whose fiduciary duty was to us.

imho, Regards.