Since April 18, 2008 when a mining mandate was issued by the National Constituent Assembly stating a 6 month hiatus for the industry, Salazar has been actively collaborating with the government in helping formulate a new mining law with the objective of generating a law comprising beneficial terms for mining companies, local communities, and the country as a whole. The company has received strong support from local communities whom surround the projects and the company feels encouraged by the overall direction the process has been moving towards. The company anticipates that work will re-commence once the new mining law is enacted.

"President Correa's repeated statements that responsible mining will go ahead in Ecuador have been very encouraging," states Fredy Salazar. President Correa stated, "The purpose of the mining mandate was to allow the government to get its house in order and new mining laws in place so that responsible mining can proceed."

Most recently, Salazar was encouraged to see a friendly takeover deal with Kinross Gold Corp. (K.TO) to buy Aurelian Resources (ARU.TO) for over C$1 billion. This is seen in a positive light for all mining companies in Ecuador, and Salazar feels this is another step in the right direction.

Salazar has spent this downtime consolidating, reviewing and evaluating all the data received from its multifaceted exploration programs. The work programs took place throughout this past year primarily at the Curipamba Project's Sesmo Sur targets and Las Naves Central targets. The company has defined a phase 2 work program which will focus all efforts at the newly discovered El Domo zone at Las Naves Central and a follow up program at the Sesmo Sur target area.

The El Domo anomaly was identified by a ground geophysics program completed earlier this year. Several geophysical anomalies were identified forming a north-west trending series of bodies at depths of approximately one hundred metres. There are three large bodies and numerous smaller ones in this kilometre long trend. In addition, and yet to be tested, there is a parallel trend to the southwest with similar anomalies. These trends are open to the northwest and southeast and are coincident with geochemical anomalies collected and mapped at surface. The ground magnetics supports the interpretation of a lithologic control to the favourable massive sulphide horizons.