Went to the Vancouver Conference and had a long chat with Michael Smith. My overall impression was again these guys trying hard and they were honest but due to market issues, being a small player and having difficult decisions that had been made that may not be able to completely disclosed.
Many of my questions could not be answered and were differed cause Teck is the closed mouth operator ,--like size of mine –it seemed obvious they may try different scenarios, (still unknown why Teck has not added the resources to their balance sheet) Teck has some of their best people working on this project which could be good news or bad news if they do not do anything. There may be some conflict with Teck as what is material to CUU and what is material for Teck. EE may check in on a weekly basis. The Liard shares are independent of the JV so Teck cannot vote them away. The tax refund is not written it is applied for. The waste has been extensively drilled by Teck and there was a big fight with the geotecks on including it, ultimately it came down the spacing. This seems to be a bit of a wink wink situation. Michael thought Teck would bring in another partner and they talk to some other parties but to me Teck holds the bag. Michael suggests it would be difficult for any company’s share price if they entered into a new project at this time of constraint. The reason the drilling was stopped was not fog or tough ground it was labour issues ( I did not like this answer). Teck/Schaft is still #2 on the NTL, and the province is trying to download a big chunk of the cost, Christie may be left holding an expensive project with few takers, seems like there will be lots of negotiations still left here. The Talthan were expected to do a 10-15% revenue sharing agreement but with the new treaty, it is not sure, there does not seem to be active negotiations. The synergies with Galore do not really work and Galore has waste issues where Schaft is in the dry belt, away from ceremonial grounds. There is about 35 km of road and a major bridge to be built, not seen as a really big issue. I suggest they start now, slowly, but got the Teck answer.
I did not get the underlying smirk that something was going to happen soon, more quiet resignation and a bit of a defensive stance watching Elmer. Personally I think we need a bit of slow building optimism in the world situation first. Hope I am wrong.
This was 2 old guys talking at a convention and one of them is reporting it on an internet chat line so none of it really has any substantive basis. Make your own opinions. I feel stupid for still being here but I am.
