Hoov, you speak of timelines and regulatory frame work as if you have real world experience in this field. The truth is you have no real experience, only theoretical experience from reading documents. Theoretical knowledge can never trump real like work experience no matter what. Those regulations are there to provide a frame work but business does not always follow a frame work as there are many outside factors that cannot be factored into these regulations.

From talking to people who work in this field and are intimate with the ZEN situation, the longest part of the process will be the hydrology study which will be a one year process itself. There is no getting around this requirement. However, there is much other work that can be done concurrently during this process which would speed up our situation. If there is enough political will and funds behind the project as some of us believe there will be, then multiple aspects will be tackled at the same time shortening the time to mining. You are right when you say mining operations cannot start till the EA and the mine closure plan are in place but mine infrastructure including roads, mine construction and permit application can be done while those two steps are happening.

However, I believe ZEN as a company will no longer exist way before those steps are done. Once one or more end users step up and sign on the dotted line with funds to show how real their interests are, ZEN will be bought over by a mining company, probably in a bidding war.

I believe we are getting close to that day and is why the ZEN share price has seen some buying lately. As a comparator of someone who was at the same stage as ZEN, let's look at KRN's chart:

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=KRN.TO+Interactive#{"range":"1mo","allowChartStacking":true}

This company was flat or downtrending for 2.5 years until the financing was announced than Kaboom, from 80 centish to over $3 in 5 days. ZEN is at the same stage with a very undervalued deposit and a tight share structure made tighter by the long wait. The next news release could be the catalyst mentionned at the AGM and then ZEN goes vertical. Sometimes you need to step away from the trees to see the forrest...

Glorieux