Was curious about the differences in the Teck A & B shares and tried to find the differences.

Went to the last Teck annual report and could not locate a definitive explanation of the differences, if it was there. Did find a few facts about Teck that I thought might be of interest here.

Seems to me that since one of the possible outcomes for us in the not too distant future may be that we become Teck shareholders, it might be a worthwhile exercise to spend some time on the Teck site here.

It is not well trafficked and maybe should be in our future thinking.

"Outstanding Share Data

As at February 22, 2011, there were 581,337,856 Class B subordinate voting shares and 9,353,470 Class A common shares outstanding.

In addition, there were 6,011,193 employee stock options outstanding with exercise prices ranging between $4.15 and $58.80 per share. More information on these instruments and the terms of their conversion are set out in the Equity note to our 2010 consolidated financial statements."

The China connection:

"In July 2009, we issued approximately 101.3 million Class B subordinate voting shares to a subsidiary of China Investment Corporation(“CIC”) for proceeds of US$1.5 billion and used the net proceeds to retire the outstanding balance of the bridge loan and reduce thebalance of the term loan. CIC indirectly holds approximately 17.5% of our outstanding Class B subordinate voting shares, representingapproximately 17.2% equity and 6.7% voting interests in Teck."

This one really caught my eye:

"(8) In February 2009, we amended certain provisions of the partnership agreement relating to the Galore Creek project. Under the amended agreement, our committed funding on Galore Creek had been reduced to $36 million at December 31, 2008. Our net remaining committed funding is $12 million, which we expect to pay in 2011."

Looks to me like Teck may be in the process of limiting or eliminating their Galore exposure.