dear macquarrie,

It's a lousy day in the gold sector, but out of crisis, opportunity!

Since you're probably not very busy, why don't you turn your mind to a crazy idea like proposing a merger between Volta and Ampella. Volta has about 155 mm shares and probably 5 million oz., Ampella has 240 mm and 3 million ++ oz. and growing. You work out what a reasonable share exchange deal would be, and then you'd have a Burkina focused mid-tier company that you could call Konkera-Kiaka, which sounds (in Spanish) a lot like " conquer sewage". K2 for short. Or K squared.

This merged company could cherry-pick which project to advance to production first, use the resultant cash flow to finance a second mine, and before you know it, the share price is pushing, say, $10. You at Macquarrie would likely make a nickel or two, and burnish your reputation as a forward-thinking deal maker!

You're welcome!