trops that is anothe reason many of these small gold operations are international. they are trying to reduce the costs of their acquisitions and their labor as much as possible. gold prices don't vary, but the $$ to buy the claims and mine the gold certainly does.
as for the red lake property, it is already locked up. i think EQBM is probably just waiting patiently for someone to buy it up or JV with them to start mining it.