I don't think we should try and gloss over his comment that ANY offer is material and he would have disclose immediately. That should close the door on all the conspiracy theories that have been making rounds over the last year or two...

Not quite...I'm not saying that there is a buyout (I've actually said for a while that I think they'll only backin and if they do buy us out, it'll be after improvements). Look at what was said, I'll bold the important parts:

"Can’t tell you that. Anything I tell you would be speculation and I believe there is already too much of that going on. People need to understand that if Teck was to make an offer, we would have to issue a NR very, very quickly. We under the rules of the Exchange, cannot sit on something that is material. If Teck was to deliver an offer, then we will have to issue a NR. Usually it has to be based on something concrete. It’s not like maybe we’re going to do this or that. Until it is definitive you don’t really know what you have."

Meaning, if it's not on paper - they don't have to release anything or tell shareholders anything. If it's more of a "Hey Elmer, cool deposit but we really don't want you as a part of it, if I give you 800M will you just give us the whole deposit and we can forget all the contracts and clauses?" He can say something like, let's explore all our options or just straight up no and well...nothing has to be disclosed, doesn't mean they didn't discuss a buyout or anything of the sort.

Again, not saying this did or didn't happen - but it doesn't rule anything out. The replies seem to be politically crafted where we don't actually know anything more or less but we think we do.