If Teck walked then who would be interested in the project? That would be a signal that the project was not worth anything to Teck. So, Teck, who was more familiar with the project than anyone else, decided it was not worth pursuing and that it had no value. Why would anyone else come along and think they were wrong?

I'm assuming that if Teck basically announced to the world that it had no value and was not worth their time, even at the steep discount they could have had their 75% ownership, then nobody else would be interested.

We would have been sitting in this dreadful market with 413M shares outstanding, no money, no partner and a very clear signal that the property was not worth pursuing. I have a feeling that things would have been very bad indeed.