South American politics...A shout out to the clown with the Kenny Rogers shot: That's the weakest bash I've seen to date. Have you SEEN Kenny Rogers lately? What dude gets massive plastric suregery? The Surgeon obviously forgot what he originally looked like, Freaking loser. Both of you, that is.
Where is exactly is Anton? His head must have exploded, getting yanked then seeing this turnaround.... His puppetmasters will not be pleased.....
3 years ago I was taking a plane back from Denver in mid-February. I found myself sitting next to one of the top Brass From Hecla Mining. Stimulating conversation to say the least. Hercla runs a mine in Venezuela (and this was roughly when kry having issues), so I asked him about the political climate down there. He told me he had met Chavez and dealt with a number of his staff in relation to mining. He told me that Venez leadership would come across like firebrands in public, but once behind closed doors, they were mindful, tactful, and highly knowlwdgeable and progressive. He told me that based on S.A.'s history, leadership in all those countries are constantly bombarded with various threats, whether violent or non-violent, internal AND external. They have to come across as an overwhelming force in response to a specific situation or to elicit change, because to show weakness would lead to eventula termination. Socially, it's what the SA public has come to expect as well - hot-headedness is baked in, so to speak.
Long story short, behind closed door Chavez/ministers were very congenial and accomodating, and Hecla was operating unencumbered.
If we now apply this to Ecuador, and especially since the last summer, we see a similar tact; tough talk and running of the mouth to the press, uncaring of who gets hit by the flack, only to later retract publicly or behind closed doors as yesterday:
"Corriente Resources said on Friday that Ecuador's government assured it and other miners operating in the Andean country that they would not lose assets, despite a government decree issued last week that revokes hundreds of concessions.
"What we were told in the meeting (is that) no one in that room was going to be losing their assets," the Canadian firm's senior vice president, Dan Carriere, told Reuters."
All much ado about nothing, but Correa managed to wrestle control of dormant concessions, plus he lit a fire under companies operation there, which, IMO was entirely unnecessary, but accomplished his goals nevertheless. Company managements get blindsided, have to roll into damage control mode, only to learn that everything is safe and nothing really changed?
He got unification in the assembly, was able to silence the crony congress, seize dormant lands, and with a bit of effort over the coming weeks, should be able to set the foreign investors at ease. Brutal for an outside investor to see, but mission accomplished, and he just consolidated his power base in times of inflation and economic uncertainty.
I predict that now that he has just come off like the tough guy, you will now see him come off like Santa Claus in the coming weeks - positive resource development to make investors happy, foreign dollars to develop mines and create jobs for the poor - a man of his people. He wins, mining wins, the sufferers were the holders of any of the companies involved there.
Make no mistake, I predict no Ecuadorians will be losing work over this. The only thing that can keep Correa in power at this time is positvie economic development. Inflation is endemic across the planet, and obviously affects lessor-developed countries to a much greater extent. The public must get a sense that they will have a chance at a future - and to attain this future there must be foreign investment - he does not hold massive, already developed oil fields like Chavez - at the height of this, that's what some seemed to be neglecting in their rationale - but then again, Market manipulators cranked the fear up to 11, so rational thought WAS difficult.
Gold and gold equities always get beat down the hardest just prior to more bad economic news (which is what we should expect next week), to prevent the masssive momentum/bubble forming in the sector. So far they have been, in small part, successful.
ARU's b1tch slap will be temporary, and as speculation once again shines the light on the world largest undeveloped gold resources, a resource the Correa MUST get developed ASAP for the good of his country!
Nice how DMM and CTQ are also on the massive percantage gain list today, but really, after a week of irrational trade, it should be expected, no?
Best wishes,
Permaflation