It is OK to capitalise now, it will sit as an “asset under...

It is OK to capitalise now, it will sit as an “asset under construction” (AUC) on the books.  If the AUC gets abandoned, which is often the case, the value of the AUC (which is nothing more than the total amount capitalised to date) will be expensed to opex.  

It is merely an accounting thing.  There is nothing to be read into this that this implies a “real” project.

I work for a big mining major, we do it all the time.