looks to me like Teck is getting very serious about us...

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$2.5 million for the whole year isn't "very serious" in my books. "Encouraging" is more along the lines I would use. Each to their own though...

I think "very serious" would include more than just enviromental monitoring and fast-tracking preparation for enviromental permitting and road construction. That they are studying the pit design shows they are interested in developing it for sure - although a much larger spending committment would show more urgency for the project. If they were looking to hook up to the NTL soon they would be throwing a lot more money at the project to get it done, IMHO anyways.

It is good they are spending more than the minimum $500k though.