I think one way that some of these juniors can protect themselves is to merge with other juniors and thus create super juniors or mid-size producers...
If you took 4 or 5 junior producers/explorers and consolidated them , you could end up with a company that is producing maybe 400,000 ounces of gold/equivalent with several millions of ounces in reserves.
The complete obliteration of these juniors is/has been absolutely astonishing , perplexing and infuriating...