"…why wait until we become more expensive as drill results are NR'd?"

It's a balancing act, imo. Pay as little as possible for CUU's 25 per cent, but right now whatever that price is would still be too high a price for Teck shareholders. So Teck has to justify the price to its own shareholders by drilling and showing value. But not too much value, just enough to satisfy EE. See saw see saw….