It's a voluntary blackout. Mike told me once that essentially they were going to be blacked out until the feasibility was released because they knew too much.

It probably doesn't stop much anyway. They have enough options they can buy when the time comes that they're not missing out on anything. In fact it saves them having to dig up the cash to buy their options at this point, or have to sell off shares at a lower price. In the case of the $1.69 options they will benefit in having them extended past the release of feasibillity when they might hope the price goes higher than that and it will make them money.

I don't believe there is any deal signed with Teck, up to last week. Mike was saying that Teck was waiting for the feasibility to be published so that the market can react. That tells me that Teck likely has not entered into any negotiations with them or made any indications of their interest. Clearly, IMO, if Teck were not interested they would have already said so. They've had access to all the data now and probably run their own numbers so they have an idea what to expect. There must be some benefit to Teck for having the market see and absorb the feasibility results before they step in.