Sorry but I just can buy into the possibility of Noront getting such an agreement.

Only way it could possibly work is if a 'Major' came in and started putting out major dollars to consolidate by negotiating one explorer at a time. The individual exploration companies could then either join in or take their chances later that the 'Major' would up the offer if they found something big. The Major could wield a pretty big stick to get people to the bargaining table because once they have critical mass they could just ignore even sizable finds as surplus to requirements.