Is it not 500k/year?
I went back and looked at the contract. Each year Teck has to propose a Program that costs $500K. If they don't do so, Copper Fox can also propose a Program and Teck can either pay or lose some interest in the property.
However, if there is no Program put forward by anyone, then there is a Mandatory Program to pay costs to maintain tenure to the property or for legal reasons or reasons of safety. Presumably that would be significantly less cost than the $500K minimum.
Maintaining the claims is not expensive since they are already extended to 2023, and Teck has yet to extend them further with the work plan from last year, and then this year.
I think this is all a moot point though becasue I don't think Teck would walk away from the project.