After listening to that very interesting interview linked to Sculpin's post, I’m struggling to suppress fear that we, the shareholders of SLI, will not get fair value for our property.

I am scared we will not get fair value for two reasons:

1) market manipulators deflating and then holding down our share price
2) frustrated, impatient, undereducated shareholders jumping at the first offer made for the Tesoro

So, as a shareholder who truly believes in the value of this property, and as pragmatist who likes to do whatever is in my power to affect a situation, the first question I ask myself is: “what can I do about it?”

Ultimately, there are factors affecting this stock that are way, way, way beyond the control of a little individual shareholder such as myself. Having said that, there is no way in he-l I’m going to stand idly by watching manipulators suppress the value of SLI so some major can blow into town, put lipstick on a pig of an offer (no offence Hogtown), and leave us holding on to a fraction of what our property is worth.

I believe there are three things we can do to protect ourselves from this happening to the best of our abilities. I say “to the best of our abilities” because I recognize that in the end there are always factors we will not be able to control. That said, I believe we owe it to ourselves to control what we are capable of.

In my opinion, as responsible shareholders we should do the following:

1) Pull all our holdings out of margin accounts. As we were made aware of by an excellent post, the only shares available to shorters are those held in margin accounts (at least to my knowledge). So, to the degree we can stop the manipulation of our stock, I feel we have a responsibility to do so. If you have shares in a margin account, get them out and into TFSAs or other areas where they cannot be used without your consent. Further, if you know of people who have shares, or have told your friends to get in on SLI, ask them where they have their shares. If they are anything like me when I first got in, they probably don’t know the difference.

2) Understand our investment. This forum has so much incredible information on it that even the most amateur investor (yours truly) can read and understand what a remarkable chance we have here. Yes, the drills will tell our story, but if we are all on the same page regarding our potential, we have a much better chance of understanding that an offer of $20 or $50 or $100 per share isn’t going to cut it.

3) Be patient and trust what we have. When I read posts bashing management and questioning our share price I feel as though I’m listening to a petulant teenager who wants it all but who isn’t willing to pay the price to get it. It’s sad that as adults we can’t heed the advice we probably have given our children a thousand times: “patience is a virtue”. Hold your shares because holding them is the only way you have a chance of getting what you thought they could be worth when you decided to buy this stock.

As shareholders we are only strong if we stand together. It doesn't seem like we have too many ways to control our investment, so I feel we had better make sure we control what we can control.

Regards,