RE:What exactly is Mark Selby up to? Absolutely. The strategic way that he has built out this project is almost ideal for a major to take over. Majors care about long term (multi decade) profitability. This mine will be ready quickly and have the most cost effective opex. In addition, the size of the resource could be even more immense when they have finished exploring.
Yes they could mine this themselves, but that isn't something that Mark has shown in interest in at this point of his career I beleive. What he has shown is that he is an expert in is bringing a resource to the mining stage. My research of past sales of mines this size show that they can be sold for billions as early as the prefeasability stage. This could equate to over $25 a share. It depends on what the option properties turn up.
This is just my opinion.