I agree Chunky.

I just don't see Teck wanting to tell the world about how much money Schaft Creek is worth, and then turning around and making CUU an offer. The offer will come "out of the blue", I'm betting we won't see the optimization studies. How could we? Yes, its material to CUU under the JV but the only way forward is for the buyout to happen as part of sharing this with CUU. JMHO.

What this then enables Teck to do is with CUU and our free ride to production out of the way, they can then sell part of Schaft to another partner...and still make $ from what they bought out CUU with. Everybody wins.

I think this was mentioned before but it could be that if certain threholds are hit in the optimization work (e.g. % recoveries, pit sizes) then CUU and Teck may have in fact agreed on price points for the buyout as part of the JV negotiations.

The other recommendation from the infamous ugly duckling BFS was shortening the timeline to production. This isn't mentioned much but I wonder what work is going on behind the scenes on that front now that the NTL is live.

The big question now is how long these optimization studies are going to take, my sense is that they are probably almost done or will be done soon so that, as others have mentioned, roads, etc. can start in 2015......if not sooner.....to meet this big copper shortfall looming in 2018/19.

Just my $0.02.

K