The value in the gold is getting it out of the ground and...

The value in the gold is getting it out of the ground and processed and to a state where it can be sold. Toll treatment of that is the quickest pathway to achieving that.

More specifically there's a lot of merit in the pathway of using toll treating of the ore:

• Someone with experience runs the process so they are likely to be more efficient (cheaper) in running the plant
• The timeframes to start processing are likely to be quicker than permitting and constructing a new gold processing plant
• The's a lower capital outlay in getting gold into production
• Gold prices are sufficiently high that you can pay a fair toll processing cost and have a huge remaining margin
• Mt Ida is geographically in an area with extensive gold mining capabilities so logistics distances are likely to be manageable
• You don't get stranded gold processing assets when the gold from Mt Ida has been processed
• The volumes per year under toll treatment (contract) processing are likely to be far higher than the volumes you would design a gold processing plant at Mt Ida around. If you designed a plant to process 6.6Mt you would probably design as a >10 year facility (so perhaps 0.5Mtpa max). If toll treating you may be able to do volumes nearer or above 1Mt/yr because owning stranded capital assets at the end of the project wouldn't be an issue.
• The gold and lithium processing flow sheets are sufficiently different that there is little if any synergy in the flow sheet (other than front-end crushing)
  

I'd agree its a cunning plan, but a plan that benefits shareholders generally (all 100% of them)