That's sort of logical, but I would say generally big mining...

That's sort of logical, but I would say generally big mining companies (since 2014 anyway) like Barrick aren't thinking in the long-term way you describe. Their goal is to find a tier 1 deposit, and I don't think they are considering a plan B like boosting the value of the land package, especially if it costs A$100M to do so.

Maybe if Bamabdji had a resource already on it and some way of quantifying value of synergies etc.

The good mid-tiers and juniors are able to do well because of the short-term thinking of the bigger players.