Drilling/Development Schedule, page-294

It is interesting to see all the different perceived motivations for Min and Hancock's involvement in the WGO takeover.
The way I see it:
- MIN and Gina's main game is dominating the lithium and battery minerals sector in Australia (see all the strategic/blocking stakes they are taking in all the major lithium explorers).
- down the road, they may also get into lithium processing (a strategic necessity for Australia and its allies given China's dominance of these supply chains).
- all of this requires vast supplies of energy, hence both Gina's and Chris' interest in acquiring huge gas reserves. As an added bonus, if they can control the new gas supply in WA, they can make some serious cash here too.

As such, I see Chris and Gina as strategic allies/frenemies, when it comes to acquiring gas reserves (they might act more like classical competitors when it comes to battery minerals). I think they would be quite happy to share a gas plant in the future. After all, the point of Gina's intervention in Beach's takeover offer for WGO was to secure her own gas supplies. I don't see Min's intervention in the takoever as hostile to Gina's goals, rather as supportive. At the time, Gina's takeover bid was floundering, and she had very little chance of reaching 50% because she was prevented from buying on-market above her offer price. Chris Ellison's intervention (acquiring a 20% stake above Gina's penultimate offer price) was the only reason Gina was able to acquire 50% without paying even more than 36 cents. In fact, the way I saw it, MIN and Gina's cooperation was a bastardisation of the takeover laws.

Nobody aside from Chris and Gina know the full backstory for the WGO takeover, but I'm operating on the assumption that Gina and MIN are very much on the same page when it comes to the energy component of their grand plans for battery minerals in Australia. As such, I wouldn't even be surprised to see a joint bid, given STX's rising share price and MIN"s dwindling funding capacity (given the other assets it has been buying). I also wouldn't be surprised to see a joint Beach/Mitsui bid. Beach may not have the same fire power, but it also has its over-budget gas plant ready to go.