From my experience with mining stocks, the PPS is relative to the resource value in the ground.
In making one's buy and sell decisions you need to be mindful whether the PPS is undervalued, overvalued, or fairly valued. This is why resource valuation in terms of outstanding shares is an important discussion.
As the resource is proven and eventually mined the percentage of resource value in the ground is applied to the PPS. For a mining company this gives a valuation analoguous to a stock's book value.
While resource in the ground is not like money in the bank, it is converted to money using daily quotes from the commodities markets.
While the PPS never reflects 100% of the resource value. A percentage of the resource value can be used to determine something like a book value.
As a mining company moves into actual mining of the resource then the resource value and life of the mine are used in the calculation of the stock's valuation.
Over on the SRSR board there was a pretty good discussion a while back on the stages mining company goes though.
GLTA,
Mike
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