My two cents worth.There is a lot more to happen in this space...

My two cents worth.

There is a lot more to happen in this space as other posters have eluded to "Rene Rivkin's mantra on takeovers"

Gascoyne has a significant asset - large mill in the district, which is hungry for higher grade feed to maximise free cashflow.
Therefore leases with prospective ground for higher grade feed >1 g/t Au (like Firefly's) are worth a lot to them. Maybe they paid a premium, but if you like the gold price environment, the payoff will come.

We are seeing M&A activity hot up, so once this deal is bedded down, don't be surprised if the next round starts.

In terms of not having a clause which allows a higher bid on one level I can agree this seems weak/poor, but sometimes you need to understand the context (so saying I do know what the board was thinking, but I am guessing the Firefly assets where critical to GCY to provide a more robust business). E.g. If you auction your house and have a clause that says you can accept a higher bid after the auction, do you think many people will turn up and bid, do their due diligence. Probably not.

GCY is highly leveraged to the A$ gold price, as a reasonably high cost operator (due to strip ratio and grade). This is tremendous if the A$ gold price goes up a few more hundred dollars (share price will soar!), but the operation could also fail if the A$ gold price drops a few hundred dollars.

So in summary GCY might have paid a bit much for Firefly assets (but M&A gold ounce acquisition prices are rising - see RMS/Apollo), but there is more to come in this story, I will buy the dips and sit tight as a gold bull.