Valhalla/Skal were bought with a valuation of about $1B, being...

Valhalla/Skal were bought with a valuation of about $1B, being about twice the size of Mulga Rock (in terms of measured & indicated resources) albeit with somewhat worse grades. The downsides were that there was still a moratorium on mining uranium in Queensland (and it was another 5 years until the temporary repealment from 2012-2015), and that milling the recovered material is technically almost impossible, which should've been forseeable by Paladin & Areva's technical teams beforehand. As I understand it they are absolute dud assets both for permitting and technical reasons independently.

I agree that if JB isn't basically certain Mulga Rock will continue to smoothly obtain all required permits from the WA government, he shouldn't touch it with a barge pole, whether it's at a 100% premium or on sale at half price. OTOH I'd assume he remembers the pain of Summit and either (a) never wanted VMY in the first place, lowballed the bid as some attempt to make an example of attempting M&A to appease those who have been waiting for it? or (b) has reason to believe Mulga Rock wouldn't be a repeat of the permitting issue at Valhalla/Skal - if it's this, I just hope he's correct.