"When the drills were shut down early quite a few figured it was due to a pending deal with teck."

That was my sense as well

Elmer calls whever he talks to at Teck and says you want is to go ahead and pump several million more into the drill program which you will pay 4X for when you back in, or are you satisfied the metal is there, will credit it in our negotiation and then you can drill it at actual cost after the back in....

We really do need to see have Teck show it's hand....