RE:A 4th OptionGreat work, 123. Your insight on this project guides us all. The joint venture approach by the majors is trending as a popular approach to defray the risk. In this business there is a lot of potential for a Black swan to appear out of nowhere and really alter the economics of any project, which needless to say doesn't make the shareholders happy and likewise puts the sitting management at risk. So I guess if you have a few JV's in place, of equal size, your return should be comparable as if it were one, yet the risk is shared. The suggested courtship of Newmont and IAG could indeed start out that way, then get on into a more serious relationship, like Newmont taking them out. Here they would share, but Newmont can easily swallow this project up, take in IAG's Rosebal mine and get a bigger footprint in Africa, where they already digging away. IAG recently announced some drill results from their new African extension project that we're very very interesting, like strikes close to 100 meters returning 8-10 gpt. Nice!!
As for NG, Your point about straying West is correct. They have plenty of opp's back home, or again in their African operations to expand, consolidate, or discover new opportunities. It's a hot area, politicly they're already knowledgeable, so it would be wise to leverage those relationships and geologists to their favor.
With drills turning in both FG and Nevada, I think '17 is going to be a big year for Columbus and likewise for us shareholders.