As for Fort Hills, you would have thought Teck would have figured out the grass isn't always greener on the other side of the fence from their coal play. You can bet there are lots within Teck wondering what they are doing messing around with energy when they are good at minerals. Still, diversification isn't a bad thing and I don't know the returns from investment on Fort Hills.

As for the work program, I would expect that after reviewing the core and the mine plan for a year they would spend the winter doing trade-offs based on thier in-house knowledge to create a more profitable mining scenario. Copper Fox made an economic plan and Teck now has the chance to make a more profitable plan. This would lead into some geo-technical drilling and possibly some confirmation drilling next year as the mine plan is tweeked. I expect Teck did some district level exploration and this could lead to a minor drill program to confirm the future direction (way in the future) in which the project will be developed.

I would say however the most valuable thing Teck could do for the project would be to begin construction of a road to the property. It isn't that far and the design is complete. It is a big cost up front but would save 10s of millions of dollars having road access. It is quite a leap though for a large mining company to look past 1 year of budget to realize who much money they are bleeding over 5.

The road isn't cheap as there is a major bridge at the start on the Galore Road and I expect given the terrain in the area there would be a lot of rock cut. Guessing it would cost $250,000 to $300,000 per kilometer.

No matter what I don't see an official production decision by Teck in 2015 but I can see them working towards that decision. I can see a production decision in 2016.

Of course this is all conjecture on my part. It is based on my instincts more then any real information (which is in short supply right now).