"HIGH cards are the MO of HDI..."
I appreciate your assessment. ZTEM may have revealed to Thiessen that the numbers are eventually saying to pay Briscoe and go with the economically-advantageous and removed-from-Pebble claims. If so, the most recent 8K possibly revealed this sentiment, albeit with the proverbial 'poker face'.
Projecting economic feasibility of claims is very tricky engineering. Many factors are involved, and many can change through the interim. To secure 6-7X the inferred assets, on lands beyond the zone of contention, with the team that grabbed the 'real' claims right under your nose, is just good business in this case. Grabbing the "high cards" requires a keen grasp of the real logic, up-to-and-including putting your world-class, proven claims on the back burner and developing a much larger adjacent claim via JV.
And who better to facilitate such an arrangement than our old friend JB. We (shareholders-JB included) will look pretty smart and damn lucky if we are aligned with such logic when the chips fall...
Wait for it...