It is unusual for a company to conduct (pay for) a scoping study...

It is unusual for a company to conduct (pay for) a scoping study with only inferred resource. I am not aware of any other examples off the top of my head. The reason for this is because the primary objective of a scoping study is to convert resource to reserve (a reserve is just a resource that has been reasonably hypothesized to be economically minable for a profit). JORC guidelines only allow measured and indicated resource to be converted to reserves.

Now, I dont really know for sure, but it is likely they will attempt to define a 'starter pit' somehow and will use the scoping study to provide an estimated average AISC for the 'starter pit'. If they can find a good honest way to do this and communicate it, I do think this will be a worthwhile endeavor and should help some people/institutions understand they type of operation being proposed.