There are 4 substantial SH in PEX. Collectively holding just...

There are 4 substantial SH in PEX. Collectively holding just over 50% of the register.
Hampton,SBM, Hoderson and Point nominees. The top 20 SH account for over 63% of the register and only 177 SH account for 87% of the register.
IMO the only entity with the financial strength to take PEX to production is SBM.
Most of the register have been on board for some years, so even at today's price all would be in the money.
The complicating issue is the two JV partners.
CBH have 50% of MB. To me this is a strategic investment for land banking. They know the geology of the Cobar region and are aware that deposits in the region are generally vertical. Being a private company owned by Toho Zinc, it is difficult to know what mine life is left in their current operations.
Likewise with JOGMEC and it's 50% interest in Wirlong. It's charter is to foster early stage investment in projects to ultimately sell it's interests to a Japanese company for development. The goal being securing product for Japan.
So at this stage we have SBM and CBH that have the capability to take this to production.
I would suggest CBH jibbed in co funding the PFS on MB because at this stage they have enough information on this ore body to satisfy their needs. This is an embarrassment to PEX management, so no love lost in this JV.
PEX mean while has uncovered SN and WT. So rightly are now putting all it's resources into drilling this prospect.
PEX needs to keep drilling SN/WT to achieve a resource statement of significance, to the extent it becomes viable to mine in it's own right. At that point in time it becomes game on.
The daily trading volumes and current price gyrations really mean very little in the bigger picture.
Moving forward the M&A game will probably go either of a number of ways.
A big brother(SBM) trumps up an injection of capital by the issue of shares to free carry PEX to production, similar to what occurred with Goldfields and Gold Road(GOR).
The other unknown is CBH and JOGMEC. Neither being on the register, how do they overcome what has evolved with the discovery of SN/WT and the tight share register. At that point PEX could strand both entities investment in the region.
With such a tight register I do not think it will be a steal for any entity to take out current SH in PEX.