I've been told this will take time. That's not what I wanted to hear given the next few months. This is supposed to be an upswing time for the markets. Anyone thrilled yet? Only the DOW held its own last year. A quick survey of the new on Reuters suggest same old same old so why should we expect diffent things to happen. At least one Senator on the budget commitee said he'd be damned if they would be balancing the budget on the backs of the sick, elderly, young or poor. It's easy to see why the commitee failed to find the cuts.

The reality is they cannot pay for any of it and the universal health care requires a rewrite of Americana. Look at the 80/20 rule for insurers. Is that practical? No a bit less was achievable but they go over board to appear to be doing something. So we are in the same boat only the water is deeper.

Delays delays delays. Elmer says no hype and no rush. Ok, how about real time frames? Yes I do want to beat them with a stick at times. They are taking us right to the edge leaving us with little time to act should Greece set off a cascade. I bet Elmer is expecting gold to firm up making our 8 million ounces look really really good. So in one sense that's good. And, pounds in the ground is the best place to be during hyperinflation or a drawn out collapse of America. But, some of us want our cash for other opportunities so we want it now.

On the question of what on earth could possibly have cause such a very very long delay in the BFS. Only having to change other parts that effect the NPV. Aside from that we can tinker with the technical aspects forever. I have had a good look at the details of various BFS papers. I think it's more likely we are catering to Teck's wishes and that's the prime cause of the delays. They want it when they want it. I would have reviewed my decision to hire the companies who work for us a long time ago and so would Elmer. That leaves us with the Teck reasoning. Elmer is on record as saying Teck has the contractual right to tell us what they don't want released and so it seems we only get what the law requires. Now if only we could get that in a timely fashion. I bet there's a lot more people who are annoyed with this but do not put voice to question.

Is this going to change? No. In fact it will get worse. The main reason for this is the complexity of any discussions they will have. They will make absolutely certain not to telegraph any info that might mislead us into thinking a talk is being productive. This is the way it should be. But it also means we will have no idea of the time frame until a written offer shows up.

There's lots of insinuation that Teck will not want to carry us. Yes, the cost to them is higher than buying us out and selling of half to a money partner. This is not the ideal case. We want to bring our own partner to the table. That's more leverage. People are invested in us in ways not show by share ownership. That counts for a lot in our world. Elmer's last deals worked because he had connections. Those connections have an interest in us even if at arms length. Because of this I'm certain this will be a mine. No doubt about it. If we get trapped here it won't be so bad when it rises. Stifel did set the trap and it did net a lot of people who now have no choice but to ride it out. That's just the way it's done. The side effect is that we know for 100% certain our buyout will be above that and probably by a fair bit.