I believe it was someone from Noront who made some statements to this effect. They even made that half hearted run at FWR that got Cliffs to the game in a bigger way. I say half hearted because Noront had no intention to get in a bidding war with them.
I'm sure that Noront is serious about moving from an explorer to a developer, and have brought some people on board to go in this direction. I do not think Noront will give up persuing this objective. However, if a big producer comes with a sweet enough offer, I have no doubt they would be willing to sell. The trouble is, how sweet does it have to be to persuade them. Unless the offer is sweet enough the suiter would have a hostile takeover on their hands. But this is some time in the future from my perspective.
I think Cliffs is serious about developing the chromite and consolidating those players they have an interest in. This includes Spider who they do not have a financial interest in ( as far as we know ). But Spider's interest is certainly tied into Cliffs interest in that deposit, so for somebody else horning in on them would be remote. Whatever else Cliffs may have in mind for the future of the Ring of Fire is speculation. They just may want the whole works in due time and I would no longer be surprised. They are a growing mature company. If Cliffs is happy with just the chromite, then there will be at least two companies developing the Ring of Fire ( Noront or ? ).
From my perspective, who or how many doesn't interest me. I'm holding and watching the value grow even if the share price lags. First, we have to strike a reasonable deal with our First Nations partners, get back to drilling and find out how large these deposits really are. I'd like to stick around long enough to see if the two strikes are connected by a large pool of nickle beneath and joining both. Let's get back to drilling!!!!
