It can be both.
The mine plan is very technical. Maybe the original mine plan CUU brought up is not what Teck may want.
Maybe they want to alter the mine plan to the way Teck wants it. So they need both time to negotiate and readjust the plan.
I don't know how project engineers work, but when they said man shortage, it can be in different perspecitves. One is that the engineers that worked on it orignally has finished but Teck wants it differently, because work is backed up and there isn't time for those engineers to continue working on CUU when they have to move on, you can call that man shortage and require someone else. Or you can take it as that they were short the entire time and now they need more time. Take it in whatever way you like.
But the hiring of Jim Gray gives me the impression Teck's want it to do it their way and they want their own guy to look into it first.