Without knowing what's going on behind the scenes concerning discussions with other parties IMO the Duparquet acquisition opens the JV door much wider than with just Springpole if that's the direction our Management chooses to go.
Why couldn't we attract a major mining company to partner with us on either Springpole or Duparquet AND if necessary, both of those properties? That's an option now that we have acquired Duparquet. That's another carrot we have available to dangle in front of potential suitors/partners.
To your point about Dan mentioning a starter open pit. That would almost lead me to believe they want to keep Duparquet for ourselves and try to begin mining there asap. We would still need to raise some cash to do that, so we'll see how it all unfolds, but IMO acquiring Duparquet surely has to make some of the bigger Players sit up and take notice on our outstanding list of properties and Keith is acutely aware of that fact. Like Dan said Duparquet adds 40% more gold reserves to our numbers.
It also should make us even more susceptible to being bought out too. I would see some sort of bidding war ensue if that were to happen.