"i dont think any scenario involving a buy-out/off-take is even remotely "likely" at this stage."

I suspect market action hints otherwise. There is also clearly enough data at this point for an offer to have already been made. EAs comment that he "doesn't expect to be around next year" was based on his own sense of what they had and who he'd already been talking with. Bye the bye, we are weeks away from that time of year he expected to not be around in.

I would guess AE's opinion at that time was also based on a 6 month PEA type timeframe. No doubt he underestimated the time/speed this particular market works at. Not to mention the deamnd of the high end market.

In terms of what is 'likely' I think we can all agree none of us has the information in hand to make even an educated guess. The only thing we know for sure is that we do not know everything or anything cloase to everything.

I would not worry at all about a hostile takeover. How can someone make a bid based on the public data? You would not know the costs (sure you could guess but the process is unique) and more importantly you would have no solid information on psooible selling prices. You would have to have an NDA at this point to get that information. Even once the PEA is released, you would need to ensure yourself of selling prices, contracts, etc. So really the ONLY candidate for an hostile bid would be a someone with knowledge of THIS industry and NOT currently under an NDA. Limited group i would think. Take that limited group and the fact that the BOD 'controls' 50%+ of the stock in some manner and a hostile bid is a very remote possibility.