..."If the cost of clean-up is almost a non-existing factor to Teck's decision now, wouldn't this also be a bargaining chip for EE to as for a nice premium? "
I would think Schaft really wins on the clean up side of this decision. The Tailings Storage Facility in the Skeeter valley can be continually expanded up to a point to accomodate vast amounts of tailings. The low amount of precipitation makes the management of heavy metal runoff more manageable than other projects in BC.
If we didn't have higher (the higest even) grades near the bottom of our 2013 planned pit, we'd be able to fill it in when we were done with the current configuration. As it has been said before, the current pit is only today's news as other plans following further drilling and engineering will likely take this pit deeper and deeper. At some point the grades and economics will cross over and digging at Paramount/Liard will have to stop but that might be 20-30 yrs past our current 21 yr mine life. As Elmer said last year after he drilled the first discovery hole into Discovery zone and found minerals where waste piles were planned, "its the kind of problem that makes the geologist happy and the engineers busy" (or something to that effect).
The far future Paramount/Liard super pit will likely become the TSF for Discovery and what ever else gets mined to the north. The great thing about this is the close proximity to the potential future zones and no expensive and time consuming dams need to be built. Costs go down while long amoratized infratructure keeps producing cash.
jmho
