Do you know which fund the NST shares are going into and what...

Do you know which fund the NST shares are going into and what the names of any other gold miners in this fund are?

Maybe that could be the clue to your theory. One of these other mining companies might be the predator if you believe in conspiracies, although I don't think there would be anything illegal in doing it this way as long as there isn't a third party or other parties involved conspiring and hiding behind the scenes that would give Blackrock (or the client their shares represent) effective control of up to or more than 20% of NST shares before they launch a TO.

The only issue from a disclosure and regulators perspective that is the reason that your theory is probably sunk, is that if the NST shares are held in a fund and disclosed to shareholders as being part of the fund and held for the benefit of the fund holders they couldn't possibly be being held at the same time for an undisclosed mining company client as part of a TO potential bid. It would seem awfully unfair to the people in the fund especially if the "trust" holding for the mining company wasn't disclosed as such. Blackrock can't hold these shares on behalf of two separate beneficiaries (the fund holders and the mining company) without disclosing the nature of such arrangements. ie how the fund holders are to benefit from the arrangement with the mining company sitting in the shadows and the minute they did that the jig would be up. Catch 22. Can't happen in my opinion unless someone is not being properly informed. Esh