"You do know why it's a custodianship and not a buyout, right?"
Yes, because there is no longer any money to be made with EXLA and Excelsior mine.
But the corporation still holds two thirds of the shares. They could hypothetically give themselves back pay as officers of the corporation if money came rolling in now.
They might have thought buying up an abandoned mine would pay off if the price of fuel ever fell and the price of gold did not.
In fact, the shale oil boom was in the offing when the company was being created.
If the price of fuel had fallen enough, it would have become economical to crush the gold ore at Excelsior mine and extract the gold.
They know it's there, but getting it costs too much.