Well... I expect I would actually find it a little chilly up there at the 3000M level, but it won't be me doing the mining... Not a snowball's chance in my livingroom.

I can tell you what NOT will sell for in 2010, if you want to know, but there is a small 'price'...

B.

Re: Eagle's Nest and undergound mining...Bentonstock...

• The straight-down tidy ribbon-like structure will make underground mining very straightforward and relatively low cost. You can push down a shaft parallel to the structure and access and muck out the ore with short addits and hoist it to surface.


• 
  It is far cheaper to hoist out ore than to haul it out with underground mining trucks via a ramp (think of Windfall). Using diesel-powered underground mining trucks is much more expensive to due fuel cost, additional ventilation requirements, and equipment maintenance. With hoist, you only have to worry about the cost associated with running the hoist, which is powered electric motors on surface. The cost advantage is so much greater using a hoist, that in some case mining companies have driven down a ramp (for shallow deposits) to access the orebody, but have then pushed down a shaft to hoist it out the ore, rather than haul it out via the ramp.


• The difference in cost, once you are underground, in mining at say the 1000m as compared to the 2000m level is "incremental" not "exponential". It is costly to put in the shaft, but once it is in, the costs to operate and go deeper are quite low.

Shares of Cliffs its is then... Far less than 12.5% of FWR shares tendered to NOT.

Hmmm... I wonder how happy Iwrin et al (the other instos) will be about getting a fraction of a Cliffs share for their FWR shares, particularly since Cliffs will be reporting earnings soon... I must be daft, because it appears to be a dumb move to me.

This '$1' might not be not be worth $1...

Shares or Cash$$$?

I am sure this topic has been discussed here somewhere, and I probably missed it, but the new Cliffs offer clearly states that it is share exchange offer, unless 12.5% FWR shares are tendered to NOT, in which case it would then become a cash offer for $1/share. Or did I misread something?

So, obviously the instos are not getting $1 cash per share unless NOT has 12.5% of FWR shares. Would not be in their interest to ensure that NOT does, so that they get cash instead of Cliffs shares, as the cash is more attractive to them? Why would they bother shifting their support to the Cliffs offer if they were not certain they were getting the cash, as the new Cliffs offer is only 10 cents more on share exchange basis, unless NOT gets 12.5% of FWR.

I get the impression that everyone seems to think that NOT will not even get 12.5%. If that is the case, I fail to see why the instos would be jumping ship and siding with Cliffs. I am not saying that have not, as all evidence points in that direction, but why bother for as tiny fraction more of Cliffs share, which would be converted to cash offer, only if, NOT receives 12.5% or more of FWR?

If NOT has 12.5 percent of FWR, that will become something more that $25 million whether its cash or Cliffs stock.

If NOT does not get at least 12.5%, then everybody gets Cliffs shares, not cash.

What is NOT going to do with either $25 million or more, or some amount of Cliffs shares worth less than that (right now)? What are the advantages of keeping the Cliffs shares? It seems to me that NOT stands to gain financially from this attempted takeover, unless they get an insignificant amount of FWR shares, which is quite possible. However, I fail to see why the instos thinking they are all getting $1/share cash for their FWR shares unless they are assured NOT has at least 12.5%.

If this NOT gets a 12.5% of FWR, it effectively a ‘free’ financing for NOT (no fees). Not bad, and worth the takeover effort. If NOT ends up with Cliffs shares because it receives less that 12.5%, why should it keep them. Future capital gains? Income? Whatever the case, its still free money, is it not?

I am beginning to think this takeover attempt was designed to test Cliffs intentions and/or force it to play its card, and at the very least get some of that major's cash, and maybe acquire FWR if NOTs offer exposed that Cliffs was not really serious about the RoF chrome. I wonder if NOT really even expected that it would end-up owning FWR... NOT admitted publicly that it could never outbid Cliffs, and it made a final offer knowing that Cliffs would likely respond with something better. To be honest, the whole ‘Wes tried to meet Mac’ thing that started this ‘hostile’ takeover attempt seemed a bit weird to me... Thinking conspiratorially, just for a moment, one might consider it to be Scene 1 of an RoF soap... Contrived.

Whatever the case, even if NOT receives an insignificant amount of FWR shares, their takeover attempt has resulted in forcing a major into the RoF with infrastructure development plans, not to mention a lot of publicity free publicity for NOT and the RoF. NOTs offer for FWR has resulted in establishing, due to serious interest and purchase of FWR by Cliffs, that it is far more certain that the ROF will develop mining operations, than it was before the offer, and that alone is worth a lot to NOT. The infrastructure intentions/plans alone of Cliffs should have a positive impact on NOT’s valuation.

So we do not own FWR... So what? It was only worth roughly 70 cents, expressed in terms of NOT shares based on the Cliffs $1 offer, and we have traded up or down that much in day more than once. It would have been a nice accessory, but we are still where the real action is – nickel and PGEs.

NOT has effectively demonstrated to the larger investment community that the RoF has value by forcing a major to play its card. We have established that chrome is for real, and that it has value, and that mining in the RoF can be economic. I fail to see how we lose...


B.

"I am listening to the podcast and Mac stated that the New FWR will jv with Cliffs to drill for niclel etc in th rof!!!"

Wow... That's so awesome Don. Well, that takes care of it then... Forget all the concerns about the deal... They are going to drill for nickel together!... This is what I love about investing in junior mining... They always find a way to get best opportunities for us little shareholders.

I am so happy!

B.

"The fraction of a Cliffs share to be issued per Freewest share will be determined based on the volume weighted average price of Cliffs' shares for the five trading days ending on the third trading day before the effective date of the transaction."

Any increase in Cliffs' share price between now and then simply means you'll get fewer Cliffs shares in return for your FWR shares. It's the equivalent of a cash offer, except they pay you in shares.

Lar"

Yeah... I noticed this also hoov, and its a very important point that should not be overlooked by FWR shareholders.

There is key difference between thse two deals. Cliff's is effectively offering you $0.55 cash for your RoF chrome, as the offer price does and will not change if Cliff's share price does - the offer will be adjusted accordingly to remain the same price. Its effectively a cash deal paid in shares.

When NOT made its offer, it priced FWR at $.3975 (for all of it), but, the offer was share a 4:1 share exchange that allows to participate in the updside of NOT and FWR combined, which is very different offer. According to NOT latest share price, you are now receiving $0.60. If NOT goes to $3.00, for example, you will be receiving $0.75, and there is still the uspide potential of BOTH FWR and NOT properties combined

The bottom-line, is that the Cliff's offer effectively limits your profit on the RoF chrome, to the offer price, where NOT's offer leaves the potential open-ended, but with some risk.

Furthermore, NOTand FWR combined would eventually be sold, as NOT is not a major, just another junior. The Cliff's deal represents the end game, whereas the NOT offer, and NOT/FWR combined, is only the beginning.

The deal, is however, not bad for FWR management, because they get to keep their jobs.

I suggest you very carefully analyse the details of the Cliff's offer, before you are misled by the $0.70 price tag.

Regards,

B.