I think you missed what I was saying. It is not that the costs of the condos are different, it's about how much debt will there be. How much interest will be paid. Possibly with the phase option I pay 30% of the debt or something and my second phase debt is less and payed off quicker. Starts to sound like this could be the winning option in the long run. Fact is Teck is doing this, they are trying to make the potential mine more profitable, not less.

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I now understand what you are getting at. No offense to your point of view - I have an honest question:

Do you think that those advantages listed would benefit the junior partner wanting to sell their share, both parties or just the operator?

I understand that a smaller project may provide improved financials long term for the operator, but would the JV partner expect to receive full value for future phases vs a larger initial project when selling their share? If they rode it out to production it wouldn't matter.

Maybe this is the only way that the project will proceed - and if so, its all academic I guess...

It would be nice to see our involvement in this project sold off in the nearer future, if this is what has to be done to make it happen - so be it.