One of the problems supporting your thoughts of a "potential" take over / buy out ~
re: "
Large companies often wait until a resource meets a certain size and is at a tonnage that justifies being bought."re: "
As Hamersley Grows so will the interest in the deposit."~ The resource size and tonnage is basically already known as per the report:
From the Independent Geologist Report ~ Annexure A (Equinox IPO Prospectus)
Quote "
The outline of the resource forms the majority of the areal coverage of the Mining Lease and has been drilled out to 250m centres at its widest – thus the opportunity to expand on this resource is limited."
Quote "
The Author believes there is only limited opportunity for the expansion of the known Mineral Resource Estimate. Project work would be expected to be concentrated on planning and development and raising the confidence level in the resource estimate and physical / metallurgical properties to aid in the planning, scheduling and marketing process."
I agree that the Iron Ore price currently is stabling out, some analysts are predicting a further rise from the current price for the remainder of 2021 but it is beyond 2021 that bar a few, all are predicting the Iron Ore price to be below US$100/t (Fe ~ 62%) for the following year ~ post
56728504 that was enough for
Venture Minerals ASX:VMS - (Mount Riley), GWR Group - ASX:GWR, (C4 Iron Ore), Indus Mining (Ridges) and Mount Gibson ASX:MGX (Shine) all to suspend operations. Equinox will be in a similar position to these 4 companies, discount penalties being applied for lower grade ore with further discounting possibly being applied for higher impurities.
Considering all the news reports / articles for steel production / outlook, I can't see how it will remain steady?
~
China reducing steel manufacturing, steel mills preferring higher grade ore with less impurities, Chinese Government wanting less emissions, etc.~ The steeper discounts for lower Fe also stemmed from the rising penalties from impurities (silica and alumina) as coke prices soared in September, also explains why premium higher Fe saw resilient price levels.~ At the beginning of 2021, China lifted its ban on importing scrap steel~ Chinese government announced its aim to diversify its current Iron Ore supply (Australia accounts for 60%) which also includes a target of 45% self-sufficiency in steel making raw materials by 2025 up from 19% (2020) - The plan includes a combination of: greater use of electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking (which uses more scrap steel and less iron ore as inputs); increased domestic exploration and production of iron ore~ the National Development and Reform Commissionincreased targetfrom 250 to 320 million tonnes of the use of scrap steel used by steelmakers, thus also lowering the Iron Ore raw material input.
Cheers 
(20min delay)