I wouldn't get my hopes up that things are going to happen soon.
I doubt they need any earth moving equipment for 2 years. The schedule in the FS starts with receipt of the EA, which could take a year after filing. Then 6 months to get the construction permits. No mention of a sanction decision from the BOD, but time has to be allotted for that as well. Right now I don't see any miner approving a large scale project until economies and therefore metal prices improve. Teck did look at buying a producing operation, or a portion of one, if they could get a bargain. The big cash flow from Fort Hills, assuming oil prices recover, will be Q1 2018, so they need to prepare a number of options from which they can recommend a project to the BOD to make a sanction decision. In my opinion, it would be too risky to focus only on Chile with the labour and permitting issues. All I expect to hear about SC is a wrap up of the optimization studies and a decision to file an EA. It doesn't require any significant capital over the next year and puts SC in the batting rotation. That could be sufficient de-risking for someone to consider a buyout. There are two other aspects about SC we should have some feel for when the drill results are released. Is there potential for additional deposits, established with drill core not geophysics, outside of Liard and Paramount, and does the higher gold grades seen in hole 427 have some extent to it. |
