My concern is that the announcement is very open to...

My concern is that the announcement is very open to interpretation. The IPO is "In conjunction with the transaction" That is to say it happens at the same time, but it is not part of the transaction. It goes on to say "NICO proposes to raise at least $8m by the issue of:" and then details the two tranches of 20m shares that will raise the $8m. $4m of that looks to be coming from MLX... if not and these shares are actually just part of the payment why have they been called out separately? Why are they described as raising money for NICO and not put in with the "consideration payable by NICO to Metals X for the purchase of the Nickel Assets". If they were part of the payment it would make more sense to lump them into the next section and say, "45,000,000 shares at a deemed issue price of $0.20" why separate it out?

I may be wrong, and there may be some accounting reason behind it, but it sounds to me like MLX are buying 20,000,000 shares under the IPO and being paid 25,000,000 shares and 25,000,000 options for the Nickel Assets. As MLX end up owning 29% of NICO (and MLX shareholders get another 35%) they are not "paying" to dispose of the asset. They are selling the asset and buying a stake in NICO.