"Why would TECK advertise their future strategy to all their competitors?"

Agreed. Also, Teck can't start jumping up and down about SC when it quite likely is going to buy it outright. If Teck started to pump up SC, CUU's shares would go thru the roof. They need to strike suddenly and decisively at the right moment to get the best price they can get. I don't expect Teck to say one word about SC until it announces its intentions and its action plan.

As far as Capex and the problems at Galore... I can't see us getting that inflated. We have much more forgiving terrain, climate and no $500M, high risk tunnel is required. The amount effort put into this BFS should mean that the sharpest pencils went into every economic metric for the project.

The latest Galore study was a PFS (lower level of confidence in the estimates and analysis than BFS) and while the capex was onerous (cost and time for payback), the project itself is still enticing from a cost per lbs Cu given the recent quoted costs:

"The recently released Prefeasibility Study¹ (PFS) incorporates a mining and operating facility processing on average 84,000 tonnes of ore per day, with a nominal 95,000 tonne-per-day capacity. The Project is forecast to produce 6.2 billion pounds of copper, 4.0 million ounces of gold and 65.8 million ounces of silver over an approximate 18-year mine life. Cash costs average $0.80 per pound of copper at Base Case metal prices assumption and $0.42 per pound of copper at Current Case metal prices.² http://www.novagold.com/section.asp?pageid=22238

At Schaft Creek, the larger resource and the improved grades, the mine beneath the mine and the potential for extending Paramount are further sweeteners as are our confirmed zones of Mike and Discovery.