The beautyof investing in this company is that its essentially derisked. The PEA should be quite good and will derisk it further. It will be a profitable mine with a 10 year life span as it stands with the high liklihood of having much more resources and longevity than is figured in the resource estimate. Even if gold were to get significantly cheaper, which I seriously doubt, they should still make decent money.
The political turbulence in Fiji over the years had caused me a little concern although mining endeavors had never been affected by them. Since the elections last fall, that small risk seems to have gone away. Fiji is a small nation with fewer than 900.000 people. Its politics are very local so it was wise for Lion to have those 240 meetings with the locals on economic and environmental issues. (Vatakoula's history on those issues is pretty spotty)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Fiji
As far as a buyout-- it ain't gonna happen until Wally wants it to. He owns a controlling 30%+ of the company, now worth to him about $10 mill. I'll bet he's planning on his stake being worth far more .than that before he would even begin to think of allowing a sale.
The coming years should be full of 'interesting' news for Lion. Unlike so many companies, its not a speculation. We know it will be a mine, its market cap is still way cheap, and its upside has possibilities of being terrific.