New Found Gold Corp V.NFG

Snidley

[likeike]

@Snidely The reason I don't see an acquisition on the near-term horizon is due to several factors. First, there are only a limited number of companies (maybe 10 or so) that have the wherewithal to do an acquisition of a project the size of Queensway. There are two obvious candidates (Barrick and Newmont), but doing so would be a major change of direction from what both companies have been doing up to this point. Kinross and Newcrest both recently completed pretty sizable acquisitions, so I am not sure they have the disposition to do yet another prior to letting the dust settle on those other acquisitions. Agnico would be an obvious candidate, but I think it will be a bit of time while they wrap up the merger with Kirkland Lake. There are a couple of the South African companies (AngloAshanti or Gold Fields) that could be a surprise wild card. As far I am aware, neither company has operations in Canada, but they may want to add some safer jurisdictions to their portfolio and something like Queensway would make a big splash. Kind of an out-of-leftfield idea that isn't very likely, but none of the other options seem very probable either. The second reason I don't think acquisition would happen in the short-term is that there is just too much exploration that still needs to be done. NFG isn't going to get the price they want until they do more drilling and determine whether there are other discoveries on the remainder of the property. Maybe there could be a JV in the offing where NFG gets linked up with well-cashed producer while retaining considerable upside, but just not sure who that would be. These, and some other reasons, are what give me the expectation that we will be in exploration/discovery mode for at least 3-5 year more before acquisition talk really picks up.