There would have been no reason for kinross to even accept their phone call if they had nothing to offer them. and if they had no properties, there would have been no reason to even talk to them, nor would there be a reason for the CA
I suspect one of SRGE crooks contacted a Kinross employee and said they wanted to talk. In order to do that, a CDA would have been exchanged - that's normal practise.
The SRGE used the CDA to pretend a JV had been created, but KInross spotted the lie before too much damage was done.