"If it does, what other way is there to increase your existing Nickel Resource?"

Never heard of the phrase 'A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.'?

Why would Noront be interested in potential nickel on other's property unless the
nickel was already found and demonstrated to be of economical value.

Noront already has an economical nickel (plus) asset and if it wants more then the
logical method is to finish drilling out a known and sure resource and not take
chances on unknown neighbours.

If Noront wants to take chances then it has a huge property which sooner or later
should be fully investigated. It already has found chromite, vanadium and gold
besides it's main interest. All the other metals found on it's property need to be
fully found out before going on any foreign adventures.

Offer to Freewest was just consolidation of known resources. - It made sense.
Others need to drill out and verify their assets before we take any interest.
Jmho.