I too feel like it would have been much better to have waited until the world can see how much money this company can make with the production at 50K plus ounces per year. But then again one would think that the other gold companies could easily extrapolate based on projections anyway with a sufficient amount of DD.

There is no doubt that with the assets and plans in place this company SHOULD (in theory) make us shareholders so much more money on a longterm basis (versus a merger or buyout), with "SHOULD" being a key word there. Unfortunately there are always "other factors and unexpected consequences" that arise down the road. (Just ask Yahoo a year after they turned down Microsoft's offer to buy them out what would now be an awesome premium to current Yahoo's stock price.) I'd much rather make the larger payout based on a longterm organic growth story, no question, but on the other hand there is something to be liked too about getting a fat premium without any further risk to speak of, if such a premium were to be high enough. (Minimum: 1.25 before I'd even consider it).

My2Cents