RE: timingNovagold has only one smaller gold mine (which is STILL not operational!) that they run themselves. All the rest of the value is in the 2 joint ventures for Donlin and Galore Creek, which both require huge investments to bring them online - investment resources which NG can only get from debt or shareholders, both of which are not appealing options.
I suspect that management by now understands that as great as the potential is for their two joint ventures, the risks are also great and the capital needs to be invested before the first ounce comes out of the ground.
The answer is: they need to a deal that turns them into a true miner with regular production, cash flow and (hopefully) a sound balance sheet. Once they have a number of sound mines operating their ability to hold up their end of the giant JVs looks much better (that is unless a big boy sweeps them up against their will before that. Let's see what management can come up with.