RE: Postive On CEC? "Derisked on an economic viability front"? Not a chance! The last technical report gives them a healthy payback on investment only at last year's coal prices. Plug in today's price for thermal, and they are right down bumping on their projected costs per tonne to produce the coal. That is to say - not profitable. It's harder to say about metallurgical coal prices - they are not so easily obtainable - but I bet they are getting dangerously close to cost-of-production too.
The hundreds of millions of dollars it'll take to build this mine is a big investment, and right now, the big investment dollars are not in coal in North America. Not when companies like Patriot are seeking creditor protection. Not when packed coal bulkers are hanging around ports in China like people at a soup kitchen in Vancouver.
As for CEC's JV partners, Itochu chose not to make its contribution to the cash call at the beginning of the year. The usual reason for a decision like that is that they now figure they have better things to do with their money than chase this iffy project.
It's one thing to be upbeat, it's another thing to ignore some fundamental and obvious truths about the Raven project. The Raven mine is a bird that will only fly when it can catch a huge updraft from screaming hot coal prices. That ain't the situation today.