as I previously posted, spending $250 million to drill and explore seems like overkill. Can you spend that money in 2 years? 5 years? Will CF have to wait until every last penny is spent to be in a buy out position?

That is what the backin agreement calls for. Yes, it would be overkill to spend that kind of money in one year so my guess is that Teck could be negotiating some sort of compromise. For example a deal could involve Teck giving us $200m in cash plus a drill program of 50m to get their 40%.

Imho, if we do a massive drill program this summer to prove our 171M tons of waste, plus drill out the Paramount, Discover, ES, and Mike zones and if this proves ES theory about multiple deposits we will most probably be bought out this year at a fair price. So no we don't have to wait it out until they drill this property to kingdom come. EE has his price and I think he wants to cash in this year and not wait 2-5 years down the road.