"IanVestor said: "I suspect that Vz would prefer to do the JV with RML."

I think that comment was someone else, but I do agree that VZ would likely prefer a JV with Russoro. But they don't have the kind of cash to make a real offer. GRZ's cash value is higher than this offer.

But, I am not surprised by a low ball offer. (Maybe not this low, but a low one). KRY has a contract so it is a different animal. All news has been pointing to KRY getting a green light while we have not seen anything on GRZ such as the VM's site visit or letter on the conditions. GRZ may have been signaling they would like to be bought and RML made an offer to test the water and see if they could get it cheap. I'm sure they are in the know about the permit and would not make an offer if they thought it was a no go to mine.

The Real Estate analogies are valid. My wife and I bought a short sale foreclosure home. We knew what we were willing to pay which was a bargain for us but my agent advised me to low ball. I knew the offer was ridiculously low but it cost us nothing to make it. It kept us in the drivers seat and in the end when we made another offer that was accepted, it was still well below what we planned originally. Could not have happened had we not made the low ball offer first. This offer cost RML nothing and it may be they hope to soften up GRZ for a real offer later or even just intentionally to push the price further down for whatever reason.

The Russians may be many things, but stupid is not one of them. We just don't know what their real motive was in this gesture.