Though I think a takeout of the entire company is the best end game for NFG, I don't think it will happen anytime soon (possibly not for years) and I believe this is in fact the way to go barring a jaw-dropping offer from another party given the current econimic climate and recent merger / takeout news.
Takeouts / Mergers of Producers:
In the past number of years, large producers seem to be mainly focused on adding production ounces immediately by either acquiring or merging with other producers:
Barrick and Randgold
Newmont and Goldcorp
Agnico and Kirkland Lake
Agnico / Pan American and Yamana
The recent conditional offer by Newmont to acquire Newcrest may come to fruition as well given Newcrest did not dismiss the initial offer out of hand, then stated that, while they considered and reject it, they are willing to provide confidential information to Newmont and listen to more enticing offers should Newmont wish to sweeten the deal.
"The (Newcrest) Board has considered the Indicative Proposal and has unanimously determined to reject the offer as it does not represent sufficient value for Newcrest shareholders. In order to determine if Newmont can provide an improved proposal for consideration by the Board that appropriately reflects the value of Newcrest, the Board has indicated to Newmont that it is prepared to provide access to limited, non-public information on a non-exclusive basis. The provision of this information is subject to certain conditions including signing of an appropriate non-disclosure agreement."
Recent Takeouts of Juniors:
The one that most investors in junior gold companies seem to be salivating over was Kinross' takeout of Great Bear. It appears likely that GBR got at least full value (if not moreso) from K, but to get such a deal, you have to have a buyer willing to pay that price. A company is only worth what either the market or another company is willing to pay for it at any given point in time. Barrick's CEO Mark Bristow was openly mocking the amount K paid for GBR. I assume Barrick was one of the companies kicking the tires of GBR, but wasn't willing to pay what Kinross was (the question is, how much less..?).
Conversely, there are times when an acquisition proves to be a steal. Kirkland Lake's purchase of Newmarket Gold (Fosterville) is the glaring example here.
Then you have the agreement announced earlier this month in which Sabina's Board of Directors (SBB) agreed to a takeout by B2GOLD (BTO). If you head over to the SBB BB, you can read for yourself how upset many of the retail shareholders of SBB are over what they believe to be the lowball offer SBB Board accepted and are wondering where AEM (which already has two producing mines and one exploration project in Nunavut) or others are in besting the BTO offer. Now, a better offer still may be made public by another suitor before the shareholder vote on BTO's offer, but the simple fact that SBB's BOD agreed to the BTO deal at all has many retail investors in shock.
Thus, unless a too-good-to-turn-down offer comes NFG's way, being cashed up and drilling the heck out of Queensway would seem to me to be the best strategy going forward. Let potential suitors come to NFG if they are serious about offering what would be considered fair and full value for Queensway at this stage of its life. Otherwise, reject the offer outright and carrry on with the exploration.