RE:I have worked in oil sands for yearsThe price of oil took a shiit kicking over the last little while, that is a less than favorable scenario for a startup company engaged in demostarting the brand new slovent based extraction process they are developing. $30 oil saw many oil companies lay of workers of their own, and with profits almost non existant, that doesn't exactly leave much room for spending money on new technologies. US Oil Sands has managed to survive through this period of low oil prices for long enough to at least complete the demonstration plant. Re hiring employees is good sign, not a bad one. Spring and summer should see a rise in oil prices which is good for Sands producers. North American oil companies cannot survive with oil less than $50 a barrel. This is a pretty large and expensive project to just be rolling the dice on in hopes someone will take notice, I believe there is interest in USO's extraction technology, but no one buys a product just beacuse it appears to work on paper or on a bench scale test. They need to see Demonstration Plants before opening up the cheque book.