Call CUU on Monday and ask it is as simple as that, no need to speculate; or is there?

They wouldn't tell you if they were, as that's enough to know something is going on.

lack of information from management

That's been true for the last 2 years. Doesn't mean we've been negotiating for the last 2 years.

BFS not being handed to teck yet

Also been true of the last 2 years, again doesn't mean we've been negotiating for the last 2 years.

Teck not wanting to loose the liard shares

I'm sure that's been true for a while as well - but that's not even something that's a fact. They might not mind losing them and then buying them back - realistically they can't say "we're not going to give you any value for Liard since we own them before you release it - but o, can you not release it so we can not pay you for it". Realistically, Liard just makes things complicated - if they didn't exist, we'd be getting the same cash flows without any further calculations. They don't add value to schaft creek, they're part of the value of schaft creek.

All that said - I'm not saying we are or we're not in a blackout, negotiations or anything - just that we don't know and none of the evidence is very good that we are. Everything that's evidence for negotiations can just be evidence for poor transparancy and poor abilities to hit deadlines. I'm holding judgement till we know for sure, and will give them the benefit of the doubt till then - but not extra praise until it all unfolds.

Honestly we just don't know anything.