"for reasons of opportunity and convenience".

There are many reasons of opportunity for VN to be rewarded in a new contract rather than be stuck in the old MOC. The convenience of starting from scratch gives all three parties a greater opportunity to come to an amicable conclusion.

All hope is not lost. In my humble opinion this was a planned move in order to ensure VN got a larger piece of the pie. The current MOC gives VN only 3% at most depending on the price of gold. A new MOC or VN agreement with the newly arranged JV SubCo between Crystallex and CRCC would give VN a bigger cut. That's where this could be going.