I think its worth widening the scope here to what this deal also...

I think its worth widening the scope here to what this deal also suggests - that the developers are probably now startign to become soughtafter by the mid tiers.

ie gold execs are now convinced on gold uptrend but market hasnt yet pushed that into deveoper stocks prices too greatly.

so mid tiers tryign to go from 1-3koz up to the 300ko+ club in particular will be combing the market for scrip for scrip opportunities. the 10c in the dollar cash deals are probably gone.

scrip for scrip means buyer is protected from serious downside if the trend does suddenly reverse

NB: i may be biased in this appraisal. id shifted my focus from producers to developers recently thinking this is where the value is. most of the producers look fatigued to me - they rely on gold price going up for stock prices to go up - rather than being intrinsically cheap as they were 8 months ago

But id also done it with one eye to potential for a major equity shakeout - where even gold astocks could be sold off regardless of golds direction

just thought id put that out there for others to consider.

just my 2c

gb