Always possible but FNC has been fending off Noront offers for many months now and does have money to do at least some drilling so such a deal now seems unlikely.

I kind of like the idea of FNC hedging their bets by doing jv, less risk for them and maybe worth the potential lower return if something is found that blows peoples socks off. Such a deal at this time likely to boost share price of both parties.

IF indeed some of these deposits are very deep then drilling is going to be very expensive and Noront is the only player with enough money to fund reasonable amount of deep drilling.