I do not know a whole lot about this subject, (bet you never thought you would hear me say that about anything), so the best I can give you is my uneducated opinion based upon things I have been told. As laymen, we are all very impressed with the price of gold, copper, silver, moly, and other metals. However, I suspect that those in the industry, are less concerned about today's prices than they are with the projected world-wide demand for those metals over the next 5-10 years and beyond. I have been told that they will not see any revenue from the Alto mine for a minimum of 3 years. So I would think that today's prices have very little to do with how soon they close the JV. The price of metals will have changed a thousand times by then. But the demand will keep going up, regardless of price, as countries like India and China continue their emergence as world powers. JMHO of course.