Hoghead, it seems you are very concerned about the need for consolidation in order to raise funds for SC component. What SC expenses do you have in mind? As per the JV agreement, TECK is responsible 100% for all SC expenses so why would there be a need for us to raise funds for SC? Please enlighten us. TIA

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I was a lot more concerned before finding out about the 7 million (!!) tax refund. I hope that was a correct amount.

I have been burned badly before in another investment that had a reverse split - so I AM very cencerned about that possibility. At the time, management said it was a non-issue and only to make the SP more attractive, blah, blah, blah... Within weeks more than half of the value was lost with no bad news or other influence.

The expenses central to SC would be wages and office expenses, plus whatever misc expenses there would be. Is 2 million a year out of line?

Expenses for Carmax and Arizona is another story though. 25 more holes and a PEA at Arizona is going to cost lots, and Carmax is in need of a lot more funding from somewhere (not nessasarily us, but if not us - who?). Is it going to be easy to spin these off, and for that matter - is the spinoff scenario something the company has said is the plan? Is it just someone speculating what could happen?

As I have said before, I think its a tough market to spin-off now. Can we do it without giving all the value away? That remains to be seen...

As an aside here, if the company was spilt into 3 entities - would Elmer be paid seperately from each entity (with a higher total remuneration) or would his pay (and other employees) stay the same overall?