As much as I would also love to speculate that Teck is clearing room financially for our project, I dont think that is in the immedicate future.
I still own a lot of my cuu shares but jumped ship with most of my investments into Teck last year and so I have followed them closely as it is my #1 holding. I personally feel they really prioritize debt reduction. I think they dont ever want to be in the situation they have been twice now where there share price sinks and they are loaded with debt. They also slashed their dividend. My feeling is they want to drastically reduce their debt and will be very calculated with any further investments.
I see them using a lot of their profit being used to continue to clean up the balance sheet with debt reduction (perhaps 3 billion by year end - taking them to 2 billion debt), and then with Fort Hills coming online in Dec, they will now, as Lindsay mentioned today on BNN interview, switch from investing into the project to collecting income from it by Q1. By this time next year, I see them with very little debt, 4 resouces making money and then restructuring their dividend to really reward their shareholders. I think Teck will be a dynamite, much more stable company a year from now....I hope. Perhaps at this point they are willing to take some of their profit and reinvest into new opportunities. So in all, from everything I have heard the company say and do, it seems to me that their priorities are 1) Debt reduction, 2) New Dividend plan, and then 3) New Investment.
Again, this is all my opinion only. Why do I hold my cuu shares? a) their not worth much, I am willing to wait it out in hope, b) the above doesnt factor in the possibilty that Teck works in concert with another major to develop Shaft Creek with very little input on their part. As has been suggested many times, maybe they go 50/50 and the other company buys us out and pays for most, if not all, the development...?
In the meantime, maybe we sell off Arizona to keep the starve at bay. Its ridiculous that Elmer is taking that large of a salary on our dime - produce something and us shareholders will maybe let that go.
Anyway, Im here for the long haul, but I am not convinced Teck is clearing the books so that they can develop us...at least not yet....and then lets not forget their enthusiam over QB2
All the best,
Spitfire