"Can Teck buy shares of CUU on the open market now?

If so, and they are planning on paying us more than .80 per share, why are they allowing these shares to trade down here without buying a few"

With the 2002 Agreement and the fact that they have been working closely with CUU management all along, TCK is by definition, an insider. In theory, they can buy CUU shares as long as the purchases are disclosed in SEDI. But if they want to acquire CUU shares with the intention of getting all the shares, they must declare their intention in a NR before hand.

Since they may be negotiating with CUU for a buy out, doing any of the above would be sort of like showing their hands in a poker. So I would say, in practice, it is highly unlikely that TCK would be buying CUU shares in the open market on a piece meal basis; it would be done in one shot. JMO