Fed,
January sales are ok, but the real fun usually starts in about two weeks. Stage 1 has had a few unforeseen engineering challenges, but nothing that can't be overcome. Also,a frozen, burst pipe in the plant (it got down to -15 a while ago) caused some damage and delayed it a bit. Existing tanks and pumps are still being used. Only one additional tank is needed (the biggest one). It's barely February and Stage 1 was originally planned to be online by mid-April. It looks like the end of the second quarter is more realistic.
Auric staking is waiting for the weather to cooperate. It's too dangerous right now to put a crew out.
The NIR crap is making progress toward resolution.
As far as hiring more personnel, it's like the chicken and the egg. You need money to hire people, and you need people to make money. We need to find someone to invest in Itro who doesn't want the whole company in return.
It's a great time to accumulate, before the return to the OTC. We need to push the stock price above .01.
IMO, 2010 should be a great year for Itro.