desperate measures to hold us back, page-214

Headbanger and Mayfair, that makes a lot of sense! Would also explain why Heathgate have been downsizing. Vesp mentioned about 2 yrs ago that GA had trouble back in the US with the drone program and he suggested that they wanted to concentrate on their core business. Vesp implied at the time that the might pull out of Australia completely. The profit made by Heathgate would be almost insignificant in comparison to General Atomics core business. NB might have decided it isn't worth the effort.
Maybe the coming trial is just AGS wanting a higher percentage when it goes up for sale.

Also this first stage of ISR might just be a trial to prove the project is viable. Why hasn't Heathgate mentioned any plans of ramping up the rate of extraction? Looks like just a trial run, they have the capacity to extract far more than that. And sealing the airstrip would be something you would do just before putting it on the market.