Honestly I think the merger will be the longer wait if it's...

Honestly I think the merger will be the longer wait if it's construction and mining that is the goal.

Funding or not that keeps getting waived in our faces if the merger happens, they need to 'integrate' the resources with a new DFS.
And this isn't just working our a new mine plan, their proposed processing facilities are 600kms apart and have completely different flow sheets to process different ore.
Just incorporating yarrabubba into our DFS took over a year.
How long to come up with a new flow sheet that satisfies TMT and AVL's resources? And how many arguements do they have just on where to processes the darn stuff?
If there is even a hint of a drill rig coming back to site, add an extra year+ right there.
Even the government aren't funding this mega company without a DFS done.

This is not even thinking about timelime ramifications if they deviate so much from TMT's existing plan that EPA has to go back a stage.

This is my personal prefence only, but i'd rather be holding shares in a company with an existing profitable DFS done, EPA approvals in hand, and all that is left is funding, vs waiting another year or 2 to see if a new merged project is even viable.
Not even factoring in the running costs of said merged company while all this work takes place, vs the other with the costly stuff, studies, epa submissions etc all done and dusted.

That's only my personal preferance and some insight into why I don't see the end of the world TMT staying as it's own entity.

They paint a picture of funders trampling AVL's door down as soon as this becomes one orebody one company,,, but that is not happening.