There are about 6 ways this can go. The company is feeling them out and working towards getting us the best bang for the buck. Allowing them to talk about it without expecting a commitment to one direction is the right thing to do.

I've been pushing for us keeping our fingers in the pie. I want a fast end or the full deal. No middle ground. Failure to deliver aside, we are headed towards the real profitability. You can't expect them to put it all in writing. There are too many avenues. It would also not be prudent for them to publically state the direction they want to go. We should keep our share and trade off to get the 20 or 40% back in. Then go find a partner to carry it through. To get Teck to take less will require some horse trading. This is not the kind of thing you can set in stone.

There's just a few of us here who have negotiating experience on a national level so we know what this is going to take and have tried to express it. There's no template for how this will go. Also, in the process of making a deal we may get offers that have to be looked at. I suspect this has happened about a week after the BFS. There was a mood change that didn't go unnoticed.

People who wonder why the timelines are suddenly subject to blurr should be asking why this is so. We went from the iron clad timelines to something akin to a rubber band. Deal making requires it. Don't be surprised to see the 30 day period slide by without comment. When you call them about it they will tell you Teck doesn't have to give that notice and the contract reverts to the 120 day EBi option clause. I'm pretty sure we won't hear anything until the players have had a full discussion.

"Quickly". In terms of a multi billion dollar deal, 3-6 months. That would be very quick. (Probably started quite a while ago so if a deal emerges it might appear to be quick). Consider this, we propose a sales package to Teck. They say ok, go shop it. 2 weeks later they make their own offer to us. They say they'll take x% but want the liard shares and will contribute all our JV expenses and give us x$ above the set price so we can go develop the deposit. CUU can't put that in writing because they can't see it coming.

So many ways to slice it. I had a lengthy discussion last year about the subject of how big is too big. We are seeing that answer form in front of our eyes. A drilling program with intent will be coming out shortly. The snow is melting faster and we should have an early start. All the premium results have been saved for the final stroke. They know from the data just how good the targets look and how good the cap is that is now classified as waste. This year will garner a lot of attention. I expect this deposit to leap frog ahead of WRN.