The drilling plan must have been negotiated with Teck in the past few months,

Yep. Form the Northern Miner interview with Elmer:

''According to Elmer Stewart, president and CEO of Copper Fox, walking away did not seem to be an option for Teck. The day Stewart walked into Teck's offices with the Schaft Creek feasibility study, Teck wanted to talk.''

''Finally, Teck is responsible for securing the equity and debt financing required to build a mine, if a development decision is made. And Teck has committed to a 10,000-metre drill program at the project this summer to test for an eastward extension of the main deposit and to collect geotechnical information.''

"Since 2010 we have been grooming the project for that transition: we secured the bulk terminal outlet at Stewart for the concentrate, we worked hard with BC Hydro, we stepped out from the deposit to test geophysical features and got some holes with really good mineralization that clearly indicates that there's another large zone of mineralization to the north and some serious district potential. But all along the idea was to groom this thing so that a larger company with operating and financial and development expertise would feel comfortable stepping in.