Depends how you see things. In my opinion, the below shows that Teck always had some interest.
- Backing up 75% in 2013
- Advancing the project in the last 7 years (too slowly, but surely) despite the rough cycle
- Teck allocating Schaft Creek, since about 2 years now, several ressources that worked on developping QB2
- Teck never mentionning anything about Schaft Creek
- Teck not releasing much information as of today
The 2013 IRR was 10%. That's not enough for shareholders and Teck had better projects (on paper) at that time. More work was defenitely required before investing over 3B. They also had a very rough period until 2016 and were probably not in a position to allocate much ressources to the Schaft Creek project. By my experience, when a company is in a bad financial situation and needs to cut everwhere (operations, staff, etc,.) you simply cannot work on everything at the same time. They chose to work on QB2, which was legitimate. The mining sector only started to recover in 2016-2017 and that's when Teck started to look at Schaft Creek more seriously. Many things have changed in the last 7 years in our favor (exchange rate, better access, BC Hydro looking for customers, Gold & Silver rally, etc.). This should significantly improve the numbers and reduce cost. For all the above, I believe that after QB2, it will be our turn or at least enough to take us out. JMOI.
MoneyK