I think you nailed one possibility.

When the rights/warrants offering initiated in the fall, it was thinking out 1 to 2 years out for the project..at that point, there may not have been any sniffs for PGD and Chidliak.

Since that time, there may be a sniff or two for the project/Peregrine Diamonds.

If a full takeover were to occur or a % takeover where that company becomes the operator...then PGD would not need as much technical staff and hence setting up the PGE and spinning it off as part of that deal would migrate some of those workers onto another entity without losing their jobs altogether.

Could also be that if negotiations are going through, the company said, we want this person, this person and this person to stay on for Chidliak only. Not care about the others.

If there is a takeover or such, you would not have done the warrants in the first place as that adds more shares on the market to deal with...however, that was initiated long ago, so would be something they would need to just deal with.

The realms of possibilities:

9.9% equity purchase in the company at a premium to the stock price (like Ivanhoe just did).

19.9% equity purchase. Makes them become a public insider...but not have to declare a takeover.

Declare a takeover for 50% or 66.66%+ of the company in phase 1 of the takeover and then move to 90% and then force a complete takeover.

Take over 49% of Chidliak proper and they have to spend X $'s on the property before PGD has to start matching.

Take over 51% of Chidliak proper and same thing with the exception that they are a majority owner.

Give PGD x$'s for a % of supply or marketing rights when the project is in production.

Really, the takeover makes the most plausible sense for the creation of the PGE entity.

We can only wait and see what happens over the next while to see if anything comes to fruitation. They obviously want to at least get this to DFS as efficiently and least expensive as possible. Post warrants, they should be able to get to PEA level...but not beyond.

All speculation of course. I think the only educated assumption now is that Eric and Tom are working for the future of PGD beyond this current bulk sampel program.

EKIM