We will just be taken out one day and this will surprise many analysts.
I heard that Eric Sprott was very surprised when told that Teck backed into the JV. I'm sure most everyone was based on the FS, but the fact remains they did and there has to be a reason. They wouldn't waste their time and money and personnel on the project if they didn't think it was possible to make it a profitable mine.
Teck obviously is looking at different data. They ran their own parallel FS, and Mike said he thought they could show up to a 40% discount on the capex. I'm not sure about opex. Improving the recovery rates would help tremendously.
I don't think they're going to bother trying to move the inferred into the reserve category. Last year their technical drills were the more important ones to see if they could open up the pit shell and those were good.
The next thing we're going to hear about is the BCHydro study. That figure will be added into their calculations and then maybe the EA application will be submitted. At that point we might get a sense of how much they can improve this project--or, as you say, we'll just get taken out.
