Not sure I follow your question. I would think that Teck would want the EA ASAP as that would give them the green light to spend investment dollars as well as beign able to shop any portion they would wish to sell after a buyout/earn-in scenario. I dont' see how they would have an advantage with taking the EA process out of CUU's hands and running that ball down the field themselves.

Once a permit is approved, updating the plan (say with a bigger, longer lived project) and massaging the permit becomes much easier I would think. That could happen at any point after the approval.