Maybe the mapping and whatever fieldwork was done in this area gave management a high enough level of confidence (statistically speaking) to warrant a decent price from Teck but when they tried to underbid, EE ans ES agreed to spend more on drilling to poke a few holes and prove up a correlation and tell the world about it.

Sounds like one of the best explanations so fare in regards to the drilling farce...
I'll go with this one LOL