Indeed, I believe Teck had a bunch of better options than Schaft Creek after the 2013 FS. Their internal business case was very poor and they decided to put money into different projects. Copper Fox called it a very conservative FS, but who knows, maybe they were secretly hoping that Teck would elect for a diffrent back-in option.
Obviously, Teck does not have unlimited money and they can't build and manage all their projects at the same time. 7 years is very long for us shareholders, but for Teck, it's probably nothing.
Now things have changed in our favor, mainly due to the exchange rate and advanced technologies and I highly expect that Schaft Creek will be bumped in front of the line.
If Teck finances 60% of capex and sells 30% to a partner, i believe it would mostly only cost them interest on the loan to bring Schaft Creek into production.
MoneyK