I was giving some more thought to that 4-year clause that people are fretting about.
There are other things in our own contract between CUU and Teck that will force the work on this mine quickly without having to resort to that contract.
* If Teck opts for the 75% earn-back they are required to spend 4X current expenditures before they get their 75%. That works out to about $300 million currently. That is a lot of money to spend on drilling or mucking about and not trying to build a mine.
* To earn their 75% they also have to commit to arrange financing of the projected capital costs after technical completion.
They'll still be trying to spend that $300 million after technical completion and then they are obliged to arrange financing. How is it even possible that they can do these things while not trying to build a mine? I think they are caught in a Catch-22 if they want to somehow get the 75% without building the mine. I just don't think it is possible unless they want to spend the same amount of money it would cost to build the mine in order to earn the 75% without building it.
