Zak,
A couple of points that are just my observation. The Velerdena property has alot of silver, but it is in narrow veins, and the metallergy has proved difficult to get decent mill recovery rates. It seems AUM has done better at silver recovery than ECU, but now gold recoveries have dropped. The San Mateo ramp is now complete. How much this improves efficiencies I do not know. To be honest for the next several years this mine will probably be in the least profitable 50% of silver mines. The drilling that ECU did showed improving grades and widths at depth. The high grade ore extends so deep, that they still have not found the bottom of it. The downside is it will be years for a company our size to get down there. Almost every silver miner is losing money at $20 silver and AUM was wise to shut down the operation. With our high resource and narrow veins, AUM is like an option in PM on the commodity exchange. Not worth much at currect PM prices, but worth alot if prices go up alot. There is the potential to lose it all or do a 20 bagger. Only once did I get a 20 bagger, it was Sterling Mining, bought at 52 cents and went up to $13. Wish I was smart enough to sell then, but got out at $3 on the way down.
