I truly believe NAK could be very happy in a consultation role. RIO owns and operates Pebble and NAK goes back to an exploration company and main consultant on the Pebble project. They are self admittedly not a mining company. A return to their core strength sounds feasible. The additional prestige and perpetual payouts from RIO for Pebble consulting are motivators.
Additionally a buyout at $10 is not out of the imagination in this scenario.
After many years of toil. NAK may be ready to move on. Who really knows. That's why they call it speculation.