The answer on GATA is simple, Bill Murphy didn't make any serious money nor did Mexico Mike and they didn't use GATA to try and deceive anyone period, end of story in my view. There were others at GATA like Adrian Douglass, Argoz, Dave Kranzler, etc who also thought highly of ECU potential and said so many times as did numerous analysts from the street, none were running P&D stuff to my knowledge and all were legit. ECU had numerous analyst reports done by good people as did Golden Minerals but they proved to be as valuable as 99% of all the reports done on other junior producers, not so good in a market segment being dessimated. I know people can't believe what has happened to this sector and I don't balme them for thinking it is incredible because it is, I have never seen anything like this for junior gold companies on the Venture Exchange or even non-resource companies on the Venture for that matter, it's failed badly the last few years.
BTW, Mexico Mike has probably as much knowledge as anyone on Mexican properties still to this day and has forgotten more about mining, exploration and development than Bob Moriarty will ever know. As usual Moriarty is running off half cocked making baseless accusations on zero facts trying to drum up subscribers or reek havoc on others to try and make himself look important or self grandiosing, I have never been a fan of his nor will I ever be.
Michel Roy tried his best to get this company profitable and was very close to success in underfunded circumstances compared to his peers because he wanted shareholders to benefit as much as possible, and finally he agreed to merge the company with Golden Minerals and everyone knows the story since then, never quite profitable without new ramp complete which when complete the metals prices had collapsed and mill production placed on care & maintenance.
The new production plan using the new ramp is good and mostly on track based on news releases so far. The much larger future production plans are still on the table but require higher silver/gold prices and more planning to develop and more processing to deal with higher arsenic content from some areas of the mine, nothing that reasonable higher prices can't resolve. The resource hasn't gone anywhere from the ECU days including the deep targets that have drill data evidence, remeber that Velardena is based on seven previous mines on the property, none depleted. The San Diego property has gone nowhere nor have the properties added by Golden Minerals like El Quevar and others in Mexico that show very good promise. All require a better market, more drilling, more planning and more capital to realize their potential, it's like back to 2004 or 2005 except much more is known, company has 2 mills and much more ramp/drift development and many more properties of note. Some will decide to invest, others will not for a myriad of reasons (some valid, some not so much), for me I am already invested and have added some lately.
I am trying to focus on the future not the past and I think the company is in better shape today and far more advanced while getting no value whatsoever from this market as with almost all juniors. I have no juniors doing well in this market and many hugely undervalued, to the point of being incredibly ridiculous beyond belief, none of my seniors are doing well either, in fact nothing I hold on the Venture Echange is doing well, period. But this will change as surely as day becomes night.
