I imagine ES & EE are squirming a little while awaiting an answer. I say squirming, because if they go to a Phase II, it will take that much longer, and Teck must want to see something more. Maybe ES will get the drill results and put the For Sale sign up to force Teck'a hand. And we wait. This year yet, or until next?

The bright spot in a declining share price is that EE, ES, MS, DM and others are all seeing their investment accounts declining rapidly. Just like every other shareholder. So if there was any pressure that could force EE in particular to sell sooner rather than later, it is the declining SP. The underlying value of the deposit is one thing. But a SP dropping into the Abyss is another. If the Commodities prices are generally flat-lining, yet Jr's are still getting hammered. Then the probability for EE to strike a deal soon increases. Who knows, Jr's could be in the toilet for years.

Unless EE is extremely patient that he is willing to wait a few more years to realize a bigger payment for a resource that will be drilled to death and pre-construction underway to develop the mine. He could decide to strike a "reasonable" deal following these drill results.

Since the exploration market has dried up, the results should not take long for Teck to analyze. However, if the results are NOT released by Dec2013. There could be a potential for "discussions" with Teck to settle on a purchase price prior to release of this data (Pure Speculation).

In 2 weeks, that would be a good question to ask Elmer: "Are we in any Discussions with Teck regarding the drill results?"