Does anyone find the acquisition of the RE deposit in that well...

Does anyone find the acquisition of the RE deposit in that well known, land locked, African nation of Malawi announced in September 2007 a little unusual?

LYC have a resource at Mt Weld of 12.2M tonnes at 9.7% REO – or thereabouts – which will last the project a long, long time – assuming they even get started. They have a lot more than that within the greater Mt Weld ore body. Why would LYC then pay $4M for a resource in Malawi with an inferred resource of 107,000 tonnes of REO at an average grade of 4.24% REO?

Whilst the inferred resource is said to be open at depth, the relative valuation of the acquisition values the Mt Weld REO deposit at ~ US$1Bn. I note from the Annual Report that they plan to finalise the acquisition in the second half of 08/09 – but why bother – and why pay cash?

Should one query why Directors might be sending cash overseas for an asset that does not seem to make a lot of sense within their portfolio, and which really does not seem to have had any work done on it since the announcement?
The vendors of the asset are, interestingly, a private Malawian company. It would be useful to have more information about that company.