I would hope that they would process and complete the EA on the 2012 FS model of the mine. They can amend it later as they modify the engineering.
The pit itself isn't really a sticking point in the EA. The waste dumps, road/bridges, TSF, effluent and the process plants are of more concern in the EA process. That said, significant changes to the pit may well force changes in the locations of these things. We have plenty of room to the east for more pit so if East Paramount turns up well we shouldn't have a problem with this infrastructure and rock dumps.
I also don't see Teck looking to increase the daily production necessarily nor the total resource tonnage. We have enough. We need to reduce the waste and improve the grade to have the biggest bang to the economics for those first critical years. There will be a limit to Schaft's share of the NTL power supply too. Keeping Capex lower is always good rationale for tempering production as well.
If East Paramount comes up solid enough I would think that should be a pretty clear sign to Teck and anyone else that big improvements to the economics could be made. I don't know why we never chased this down in 2011 as this area was within the 2008 pit and there were a couple of juicy deep drills.
