A third party valuation is a risky move with a lowball FS.
I don't think they have much choice, anyway. They always get a third-party valuation. There's always going to be a "potential" in any project so there must be a way of incorporating that, otherwise they could simply point to the $514M figure and say that is the value.
The thing that I keep coming back to is they don't have to sell. If the price is not good enough, even if it is "fair value" we don't have to sell. There has to be a tipping point where it is worth selling rather than hanging on and going through another drilling season, or Plan B. If Teck opts for 75% but balks at the price for the remaining 25% then we keep it and wait for Teck to build the project value up until it is better known. Or, if Teck walks then because we can't reach a deal--well--then we own it 100% and find someone else to buy 25% and pay for the drilling, etc.
I think Elmer & co. would prefer to drill something that they are very confident will show mineralization rather than take an exceptionally low price now. Elmer said to me once that "Teck knows what we've got here." The valuation might help us accept the price, but it probably won't really give them an idea of value since they've just spent almost a year, if not more, looking into this project in great detail.