So if they are indeed in negotiations with Teck and he cannot speak about the BFS. Then why would Elmer leave the country to visit AZ during negotiations?

You don't have to be in town to negotiate! All it takes is a phone call. When I bought my house I didn't have to meet the broker at the house to negotiate. All he did was phone me and said, "this is what the seller wants do you want to make a counter offer?" All I'm saying is that if there was more work to be done on the BFS as some are suggesting here it would be out of character for Elmer to suddenly fly off elsewhere to do something that was not extremely urgent at the moment. The BFS is the urgent priority and if it is held up now there is another more compelling reason for its delay other than that its not finished due to something being seriously wrong.