RE:RE:RE:RE:Possible NFG Suitorssuregold,
I agree that majors will likely not get carried away re. the total price they pay for NFG.
I also agree that it's highly unlikely that NFG will build its own mine.
Sprott is a large investor in numerous precious metals companies both inside and outside of Newfoundland and Canada. I just can't imagine he is going to spearhead the building of an NFG mine or oversee the mine-building personnel for the time it will take to complete the building of a mine and the pouring of gold.
Palisades / Kettell are merchant bankers, not mine builders. Kettell is the CEO of NFG. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think he's ever been the CEO of a gold producer.
Mines cost many100s of millions of dollars and lots of time to go from obtaining permits and completing things like environmental assessments to actually building the mine and putting it into production, all the while not earning a penny of gold revenue.
I believe K got GBR for just under 2B.
While I think NFG will be worth significantly more than GBR to a major should it eventually be taken out, NFG's market cap currently sits at slightly under 1.4B at the present price per share of around 8.50. More new shares will likely be issued over the coming months / years as there are currently over 14.5M options outstanding (according to the latest NFG presentation appearing on their website), and the number of options will likely grow as management personnel (including CEO Collin Kettell) will likely receive additional options in the future as part of their total compensation package.
Personally, I can't see NFG being sold for any more than 4.5B or 2 1/2 times what GBR sold for, even if the sale is a few years away. That would be more than triple the current market price per share with likely many more shares outstanding at the time of the takeout than the current number.. As mentioned above, NFG is a junior gold exploration-stage company without the permitting, environmental assessment(s), preliminary engineering work, mine building and testing, and finally pouring - all of which will have to be paid by somebody before any gold revenue is earned. Even though this is perhaps the greatest, richest new gold find in the world today, there is a limit to what it is worth and thus what a major will pay for it.
Not trying to be pessimistic, just realistic.