Yes, very interesting - the Chairman's of RED and SLR have been...

Yes, very interesting - the Chairman's of RED and SLR have been talking for many months, before SLR's share raid, and hence, this must have been known by the BOD including MW ?? It would seem that SLR have RED by the proverbial gonads , having turned the BOD into a quisling administration, while the happy talks, full of promise and bravado continued in successive presentations, right up to the most very recent one, before the "surprise" announcement.
With the revelation of involvement of various brokers and merchant bankers, this must have been a widely shared secret corporate manoeuvre ??
So, how much of the recent share-trading was based on "insider information" - we'll never know - (im)plausible deniability is always accepted by ASIC.
WPike is correct that the SLR merger (reverse takeover) is an expensive way for RED to solve its debt and hedging problems.

This latest information seems to rule out a late 'hail mary' rescue by GMD, as this merger is recommended by both BOD's, so we best start basing our RED share decisions on the merger time table, and the likely market valuation for Silver RED thereafter. For those expecting 'dividends' in the not too distant future - forgetaboutit - this like SLR, will become a perpetual growth company perpetually promising dividends .... aka a golden Ponzi scheme.

This is another case of "the house always wins" (that is the BOD and senior management, the defacto owners and main recipients of high income).
Most companies are run for the primary benefit of staff and BOD, and shareholders get what's left over - see what happens when a company goes into liquidation - first the staff entitlement's get paid, then 1st rank debt ..... then last and least, shareholders get to share the crumbs left over.

Expect 'analysts' to be very quite now till after the consummation of the deal, then they'll issue fresh (suck-up) optimistic forecasts for the 'new' RED, in the hope that their company will get some of the hoped for future deals that Cool Hand may engineer.