"Like somebody mentioned, our price may be based on pounds in the ground, but Teck has to deal with shareholders who won't be happy with our need for 500% of the current share price."
My sentiment exactly.
This wouldn't be difficult to overcome though. They could simply announce their intention to back in 75% and a week later announce a complete buyout. I don't believe Teck would walk away from a sensible and lucrative deal because it would be hard to explain.
They could also hold off making any sort of announcement until they had lined up a partner and they could show their costs were very low. As long as they want to buy into the project I don't think the stock price will be a problem.
Our problem would be if they weren't interested. We have to keep that possibility alive even if it is a distant possibility. They have quite a few juniors that we don't know about that are fulfillling contracts all the time. They might have a better project on the go. This hasn't all gone to plan so far for us so there is a chance...