At the last check in the Enviro was well advanced and just 4 components were holding it up. Since the mine plan came up sooo short that would have led to problems with the enviro not passing muster.

Looking at the requirements, 3 years to build! Is this realistic? I read a long time ago that it was 4 years. I have not been able to find that document again but I'm sure it was on an American site. Vette said that was the contractual time but I'm thinking it was a preliminary report. So I want to know about such things. What's really in the contract for timelines.

I also want to know details about the enviro and some of the questions address that. 3 containment walls... several holding sites... etc. Our new land does tie into this. To me it looks like a revamp was required because the size of the project doubled. Mark my words, we will see this happen. If you thought this was a big project it's about to get tar sands big. There may be more to the rumor about a green smelter than meets the eye. Political rumblings suggest this to be so. There are a great number of concerns for that one but I think they can do it within 5 years.

I did discuss the new time line to production. Obviously the supply chain to Teck was impacted. I don't think they can shore up the hole so something has to be accelerated. Teck may have to take out a deposit or two near an existing facility. Obviously, Teck should still go after Iron too. If the bank account is open this will not impact us at all. Stay tuned for that one.

Off the topic, I have not been able to find out what the troop of fully bushed Alcan trucks full of fuel cans were doing in Quesnel/Prince George. I can't see what they would be doing in this area. (Another major hydro project) Earth works are being done as a company is hiring for the measurement team. Something really big is going on and we can't find out a darned thing. Arrhhg.

Back to the enviro. The above ties in with the ambitions of the politicos to get things going as fast as humanly possible. This means they will try to clear the way for any super project that they can. There has never been a better time to get SC going. The delay was horrible but does have a silver lining. Issues like the bridge crossings can take 2 years to settle. I kid you knot (as in tied in a knot). A long while back a report was tabled showing that the pine beatle and warming was going to cause the river volumes to jump by 400% during melting time. 1 enviro group stopped the whole province's efforts to deal with it by widening bridges spans. Obviously there was dirty play involved. The next year we had towns cut off due to flooding. The report was hidden from the public. Normally, it would take quite an outcry to stop such a thing. In this case it was used as an excuse.

The flooding issue has not gone away. It is getting worse. With this gov't it may be possible to put in big bridges and dredge the channels so the bridges don't wash away. You can look up the history of the report so that we don't get into a political discussion. What counts is that an entire district doesn't grind to a halt because a bridge floats away. We have a few streams to cross. That means special permissions etc. Remember when the NTL wanted to put toilets on the edge of a stream instead of 150 feet back? We can't have that kind of stupidity. And no, you can't just drive a cat across a stream with out anti spill equipment on the ready. Making a real bridge requires a lot of paper work. Let's hope it's allready in the pipe line and gets expedited. Then we can have a full road this year or next.

There's probably too much for me to discuss in one sitting. If I can't get every question addressed directly I'll still try to get it in as part of another answer. Anything that must be reworded for compliance or struck entirely will have to be accepted at face value. If time permits. I will drill down where I can.