Accepted that with some of the small miners you are buying on...

Accepted that with some of the small miners you are buying on expectations of them making a good discovery. But NLX and such stocks have nothing in common.
NLX is a run-down company with a history of profit downgrades, that cannot even internally fund the $10 mio they want/need to (again) restructure the company.
They have a limited product range, no competitive advantage, and face a huge increase in input costs - with minimal chance of passing them on.
In a nutshell, you punt on miners because they have a "chance" of making a rich discovery. The outlook for NLX is already very obvious, and it is dismal.
If I was going to have a punt I know which one I would choose.