Rahu Project, page-35

Landlocked is where your land is surrounded by other land that you don't have access rights over.

Exploration permits and mining permits under the Crown Minerals Act have nothing to do with access to land. A permit does not give any powers in terms of access rights or rights over the land. Permits only provide the legal right to explore for, or mine for, minerals. All minerals in the ground are owned by the Crown.

For instance, NTL's Rahu permit covers some DOC land and private land owned by a number of private owners. A private land owner who has land within a future Rahu mining permit area could grant access for purposes of building a mine.

An adjacent private owner who has land within a fruitless exploration permit area could then grant access for NTL to, say, have a tailings storage facility in an area that is also subject to a fruitless exploration permit. Wouldn't that be ironic, stacking more goldless ore on land that was goldless already.

The important thing to understand is that exploration permits just mean you can explore, provided you can negotiate an access agreement with the land owner. Ergo, it is impossible for an exploration permit to cause anyone to be landlocked.

And yes, you're right, it's an idiot move and a waste of shareholder wealth to sit on fruitless exploration permits - they cost by the square km per annum lol.