Member Info for Happyhaddock

@Ad12 - well without wishing to labour a point one of many thinks I have done in my past was help set up a research facility for the national fishing heritage centre and through that did end up doing work both with ministry of agg & fisheries compiling data which in turn lead to me being involved in a minor way with some promotional work with the BBC for our nation's favourite dish - namely fish and chips - except the very point of the research was suggesting that it wasn't as curry had become more popular!

As for York I know it fairly well as I used to work their for the York archaeological trust.

@ paulFG - the cruelest curse ever inflicted was giving somebody the intelligence to fully recognise the true extent of their own ignorance.

@ paulFG among other things I am a published author, and have done copywriting for various internationally circulated publications so I know what you mean, that said my main income is as a freelance artist which is another crowd that can be very insular. Not as insular it has to be said as those who work in IT which is where I started out having first trained as a scientist.... However I could go on about all I've done and leave people thinking I'm some delusional fantasist. I'm always amazed at the number of journalists who want to interview me about my life because they say it sounds so unusual and who then doubt what I have to say because it is ,well... unusual...

I've always maintained that education is about making people aware of how much they are ignorant about ... being able to step outside and see to the horizon is all well and good, the intelligent are the ones who want to know what is just over the horizon and who will risk the unknown and the new to find out.

jtb, the danger of such groups is that they become echo chambers of confirmation bias...

I once heard it said that you create a community by bringing together people of diverse motivations and interests and a ghetto by limiting things to those all of the same background and mindset.

It is true there is a lot of fickle and emotional garbage to wade through on these boards but you become a better investor by learning how others think and then reacting to this appropriately, rather than blindly emulating it.

Undoubtedly there has been a mismatch between share holder expectations and reality that could have been avoided (to some extent) by clearer communication.

the other side of that argument is one of share holders regulating their own expectations. The safest thing is always to be clear in your own mind about what is absolute fact and what is, shall we say "not so precisely nailed down" facts which are better viewed more as sentiment regulators... Everyone learns in their own time, and usually learns most by their own mistakes but a CEO is there to promote the company and get folk to invest in it... it is always wise to apply far more notice to formal legally regulated RNS's than social media interviews, just as it is wise to be cautious of anything that has gone up a lot without any underlying RNS's to justify to spike.

Until today's drop I was in profit in ECR having first bought in at just over 1.5p and averaged up buying some more when it first got close to 2p... I felt it wise to sit out all the mania around the rise to 4p and drop back again, but got caught out averaging up again to 1.9p when things dropped below 2p yesterday as it seemed a good time to do so.

Still I made my own decisions and take responsibility for them... ultimately we only have ourselves to blame if we place too much reliance upon the wrong information...

@ Trumpy - does the NOMAD have anything to do with initiating a placing? I can see a broker pushing for one if they can make a profit for themselves or the company seeking one if they need the cash, but I thought the NOMAD was more just an advisor to check whatever was done was done within the rules?

maybe I am wrong?

Step aside if you don't want to get crushed in the rush for the exit... it may get lonely around here..

We all know who got very rich on the basis of "being brave when others are fearful" and "fearful when others are brave"...

the same person who claimed success is not about "timing the market" but "time in the market"

I'm always curious as to why so many place importance upon whether a trade was a "buy" or a "sell" ... ultimately every trade has to be both for any transaction to occur even if there is a middle man involved to ease proceedings and ensure there are always buyers and sellers.

they do say when you are at the bottom the only way is up...

This was always going to be a long term investment, and ECR do have the funds to keep exploring for some while. So whilst I'm not selling up I do think it is one to put back in the bottom drawer and give a little longer after the recent excitement has seemingly come to nothing...

Still the route to glory is never a simple smooth one, most of the really big mines started with disappointment and knock backs... we may yet get there... if nothing lese we look a much more financially attractive idea to new investors at under 2p with more than £5m in the bank than we did at 4p with a much emptier bank account.

@ PaulFG - one explanation as to why he looked so uncomfortable talking about the placement could be that he knew he was going to be on the receiving end of questions he didn't want to answer.

Another would be that he knew he was going to be on the receiving end of questions he wasn't allowed to answer, and couldn't let on that he couldn't answer.

Either way that first part of the interview came across as bit of a pointless and embarrassing shambles.

@ paulFG - agree with the comments about being an un inspirational tone - I think the thing that struck me most was that he seemed uncomfortable to be there, especially dealing wit the question about the placement...

Sure more money is good as is news the JV is still on the cards, but when asked why hold an extra placement the basic gist of his answer was that it would be difficult to stop it having already been put in motion - no particular explanation about why the second placement had been put in motion in the first place... i suspect the angry mob will remain angry about that.

It may not be a popular opinion, but simply for the sake of playing Devils' advocate I will point out that a CEO's role is to secure the future of a company. Business is a rough place where people are judged on results rather than how nice they are.

Exploration is a business that costs a lot of money where the challenges facing a CEO are to secure enough funding to keep a company active. I'm not saying CB has made a lot of friends with the way he has handled things recently but is that what we want from him? - No one can deny for a company of the modest size of ECR he has put a lot of cash in our bank account to keep us in the business of exploring?

@jtb @PaulFg a few of my companies that Rick ranked are operating in Australia (incl GGP which he still ranks as a 4) so I don't think that location can be a factor in not offering any view on ECR.

Of course we know nothing about what may (or more likely may not) be going on behind closed doors but circumstantial evidence does prompt a lot of questions.

jtb - I get what you say about Rick repeat himself a lot, though I think that is, in part, because he is such a popular interview guest and so many people want to talk to him and ask him the same questions.

However I will say he seems far more knowledgeable than most pundits, and does genuinely seem to have an interest in educating, rather than merely promoting himself or flogging something to you so as to increase his own wealth. Plus a lot of what he says seems decent common sense and fits in with my own way of thinking so it's always good to have your own views backed up by those others regard as successful.

@PaulFG I initially though Rick Rule might simply ignore anything below a minimum Mkt Cap but he offered ranking/opinions on others in my portfolio of a similar size to ECR.

I don't know why he doesn't comment upon ECR but it did stand out that the only other company he didn't offer any view or ranking for was one that Sprott are know to have invested in.

read in to that what you will?

The following does not in anyway count as anything more than wild speculation so I'll leave others to form their own conclusions...

Many here will be familiar with Rick Rule (sprott management) and the excellent interviews he does about investing in the precious metals sector, where he recently commented upon the strength and potential emerging in Australia that many in America tend to overlook simply for not being on home soil. If people listen to his interviews they may be aware of the fact he will rank investment portfolios based upon his perception of risk/reward. Consequently I submitted my portfolio to him out of curiosity....

Of sixteen companies I own shares in, he (or at least his database as I don't imagine he personally reads and hand types replies to the thousands who contact him) offered rankings for 14 of my sixteen companies; two he declined to offer an opinion on;

One is a company that Sprott is heavily invested in, the other was ECR.

You can join the dots to form almost any picture you wanted but it struck me as curious!

25,000g/t is an incredible grade, but I will say what I said on another board yesterday where a bonanza gold grade of several hundred g/t was reported ... one drill result doesn't make a mine on it's own... what counts is the average across many holes so as to measure out a new resource or expand upon an existing one.

Undeniably this is unexpectedly good news even given the fact we all knew EH is a great silver source so it bodes very well for further exploration at EH. However as with all these things I'll simply file it under a good boost to sentiment rather than a material change to anything upon which a formal valuation can be based.

@AM90 - yes you are right, and I am aware of our existing resource, my point was simply that one exceptional result on it's own doesn't make a gold mine, what matters is the results of lots of drill results and lots of finds across an area.

This exceptional result is certainly a good thing but a mine isn't going to get built on the back of this alone... it will merely add to the body of knowledge and help build a larger resource. There's no doubting though that it will prompt more drilling to try chase such grades and see how far they stretch.

@Angoose - I'm no geologist but I always think it wise to remember results from a first "few" drill holes are at best a finger in the wind estimate of what may be underground. As I'm sure you know, we need a much more extensive drill campaign to get enough data to attempt to measure or estimate anything.

At this early stage results are more about sentiment and shaping future plans than anything esle, and unfortunately folk here had waited so long they had built up huge expectations which real life would struggle to meet up to, hence the reaction that the results are deemed a huge disappointment by many.

Taken in an emotionally neutral manner within the context of being early stage results I'd merely say they give enough of a hint to justify further drilling... something we have the budget to do a lot more of.

undeniably great news, but let us step back a moment and remember one great result doesn't make a gold mine. (even if it may help)

It seems highly unlikely that we will get a whole gold field consistently delivering such results... what will matter is averages across several holes.

However for the meanwhile let's enjoy a great RNS.