Remember that NST is an underground specialist at this stage, they have no experience in open pit mining. EAR would be it's first open pit asset.
I believe NST will wait for the updated BFS or sufficient drilling at depth to prove that Yandal can extent at depth and become an underground project down the line.
The second best option is for EAR to proceed to production on it's own which should achieve a significant re rate in SP. EAR uses a US$1,152 gold price in the original BFS so just updating the gold price (currently around US$1,287) in the updated BFS should easily push the IRR up beyond 200%, that's without including any new high grade ore from julius it in an updated mine plan which would have the effect of increasing returns at the mill.
Things could get very interesting if we become a producer!
EAR Price at posting:
21.5¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held