I spoke with IR today. Thought the info on Aura, EGX’s major shareholder was worth sharing. I knew EGX had support from the large families in Ecuador, but I didn’t realize how much support.
Aura is owned by the wealthiest or second wealthiest family in Ecuador. As I mentioned in my top ten reasons why I like EGX, (
https://www.stockhouse.com/companies/bullboard/v.egx/ecuador-gold-and-copper-corp?postid=22504662) having support from the wealthy locals is very important when dealing in Ecuador (and much of South and Central America). As far as I can tell, it is Aura’s only mining investment. Aura also has excellent Chinese connections.
The company will not be doing any more drilling until the PEA comes out, just a lot of mapping and exploration work. There is no point in further drilling as the engineering firm has enough to work with at this point. I take this as a confirmation that it isn’t about the resources, but about getting better copper extraction numbers.
Watching Level II is encouraging as the bids keep increasing as the asks keep decreasing. Although there is a fair bit of institutional interest, until the PEA comes out, they probably won't be participating in a big way. I can see this thing climbing slowly but surely throughout the summer based on retail investors waking up to the real value of this project and spreading the word.