Cliffs Natural Resources Inc,, the big U.S. iron ore and coal producer, said Wednesday it may take in a partner to help finance development of a chromite mine and processing plant in Northwestern Ontario, assuming it wins control of Freewest Resources Canada Inc.

The Freewest purchase would make Cliffs North America's only producer and exporter of ferrochrome, chief financial officer Laurie Brlas told the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Industries Conference in New York. The black chromite ore is processed into ferrochrome, a key ingredient of stainless steel. Almost all North America's ferrochrome is now imported from overseas.

Cliffs has tabled an all-stock offer valued at 90 cents a share for Montreal-based Freewest, which has found high-grade chromite deposits in the remote "Ring of Fire" base metals exploration camp. The Freewest board recommends the bid. Cliffs has promised an open-pit chromite mine and processing plant based on Freewest's "world class" properties and costing $800 million U.S.

Toronto's Noront Resources Ltd. earlier offered 86 cents a Freewest share in stock and now claims its bid is worth 95 cents, including the value of a five-year warrant. It says a merger with Freewest would enlarge the chromite resource base and open up future development of its nickel-copper-platinum deposits in the same area.

CEO Wes Hanson said Quebec regulators have accepted Noront's valuation of the warrant. He noted Cliffs Dec. 7 statement that a proposed $6.5 million special payment to Freewest's senior management, included in its offer, has been reduced to $2.5 million. Some Freewest shareholders had objected to the original amount.

Hanson saidf Noront's offer is final and expires at midnight December 11.