I cannot see it as a bad deal, if anything this has made the...

I cannot see it as a bad deal, if anything this has made the project more viable.

You get some cash payment upfront, which may or may not get squandered by management. But more importantly you have locked in $100m~ dedicated to project startup to production, this will be for the benefit of the shareholder in the long run. Think about this, if the money was handed to management, how much do you trust management to make good use of this?

The added bonus is SQM is throwing in a refinery plant joint venture, this upgrades the value of the project beyond selling unrefined ore to more value added product. I have no doubt SQM wants to get this project advanced ASAP and they are not looking to be held back by KDR management.

If the company has an inkling of imagination they would make use of the 100% ownership on gold and look to develop the gold resource on top of the lithium deposit. The cost of production for the gold will be significantly lower due to the credits to be received from the underlying lithium deposit. Alternative imagine mining the lithium but throw in the gold as a kicker.

No there was not a big pay day for shareholders. Yes the project has received a strong push to move into production. Throw in two sweeteners for KDR, a value adding refinery plant and a low cost gold operation. If there was a big pay day event, how certain are you the money flows to share holders and not go to pay management salaries.