I think it is safe to say the odds of this Al cover going into production which were below 25% from the day of the announcement are negligible at this point.
There have been pages now of wondering where Estel has gone in the sunset years of the N900.
For example, the only way I ever got the no-show 'like new' phone I bought from Estel was to reverse my paypal payment, a few months after the reverse a beat up barely functional N900(failed and unflashable 3 months later) arrived and I ended up having to pay paypal back and they paid estel $250.
Consider any money contributed to the project to be lost, as a one off maybe Estel has an Al cover, nobody, including those who prepaid will get a cover unless they have a lever to use on Estel.
Even if he did reappear and arrange a run on CNC I would expect him to deliver a rough cut with no finish or spraypaint.
Estel was once a good source of N900 hacking info, but he is gone from TMO, as are the always unlikely dreams of a cover which probably would have made using the phone as a phone(RF blockage) difficult to impossible.

Someone might try sending him a regular mail or paying him a visit (if you live near Piaseczno in Poland) and ask if there are any chances for anything at all and if maybe he would like to write some closing statement in this thread... His address is really easy to find online (his real name is publicly known as he was a community council some time ago and he had a small commercial company in the past, therefore according to law in Poland his address is publicly listed in CEIDG online database - which by the way shows that at some point in time he was really commited to manufacturing some electronic and related parts). I would visit him just to ask why he left our community without word if I lived closer to him... And check if he's allright maybe (maybe something bad happened to him?).

+2 to the above....
I concur with both biketool and misiak...

It is looking grimmer and grimmer as one day becomes the next, one week becomes the next and months pass by without any update whatsoever ..

It is also increasingly alarming that...
as misiak aptly put it ...
Estel may be either ill, in dire financial straits or otherwise incapacitated and unable to be present here..

As far as the project goes...
Project update or closure would be a small kindness for those who invested...

As far as community compassion goes ...
we really should find out if one of our own is alright...

If he is or isn't ok ...and isn't interested in communicating...then there is an answer... however incomplete.

If he flat-out isn't ok at all and is struggling...we can [at the very least] offer well-wishing, commiseration, or whatever kindness in support ...be understanding... and patiently wait for his return, the projects conclusion or the projects continuance...

Before we start with the well-wishes, commiseration, whatnot, what has happened to the other fellow that was his official response person? Has he/she disappeared as well?

Valid question.
There is/was more than 1 person on the project.
Whether that/those person(s) are still with the project is another matter.

You think?

There are pics of another person posted..
and correspondence by someone rep-ing the project a while ago..

What...
you think a hired actor... pichlo?
hehehee

hmmm...
actually...
if Donald Trump can do it...
why not anyone?
seems a lot of effort ...
and it seems a stretch surmising that though...
I think there was indeed someone working with and rep-ing the project for a time at least...

That's easy to resolve. Compare the IP's. If they're different, then we have a real live second person, or persons, that were part of this project.

Not hard to use different IP's if you have any sense...

Agree. But then again, would you put faith in a person to deliver something that would do that?