Given how much economic potential there is in the region, why is it that a large company with a strong balance sheet, like a major rail operator or Baosteel, doesn't float and finance a private dedicated rail company to serve the ROF? It would seem that the mine life and ore volumes would make this an interesting business proposition as a stand-alone company.

Further on what might be driving Chinese (Baosteel) interest in ROF: I was in China last week, and in a local paper, there was an article on the government's new policy for the country to lock in 50% of its non-ferrous metal supply requirements. Although I have no facts on Baosteel, this would appear to be a move consistent with this new policy.

I keep a printout of this link hanging on my bulletin board:

http://www.investmentu.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/20050228b.jpg

It reminds me that there is a common pattern to the long-term stock price for mining development companies. The reasons are fairly easy to guess:

- Stock climbs initially as it gets on investors' radar screens;

- Stock jumps on speculation that this is the biggest deposit in the universe;

- Reality sets in as people realize that a lot of time, capital and hard work is required to develop the deposit, regardless of how big it is, and speculators in the first phase run up wisely take their profits and redeploy;

- the price runs up again as production becomes a real possibility.

I would guess that the price decline and today's increase is related to tax loss selling. This is a good stock to use to clear up any capital gains during the year. This is just a guess, but I actually bought 30k more at the low, speculating that when tax loss selling dries up, it will jump back over $1. Not that I know any more than you all; just my speculative hunch.

My guess is that this is just tax loss selling. Noront is a very useful stock for me this year to offset my other capital gains. Without it, I'd have to pay tax!

I anticipate a recovery at the end of the tax year. This sure would be helped by a few resource increase announcements....

khareema,

I'm in a similar position as you are: a one pennny change in SP is more than a thousand USD change in my stock account. If Noront were to drop to zero because it was a Bre-X situation, I would not have a major problem with retirement because there is a lot more "there" there. On the other hand, if NOT-V were to go to $10 in September, I would retire. I would enjoy that, and hope that the first nations benefit in an equally large way. I suppose there are a lot of retail investors watching what happens.

My own guess, and this is a very uneducated guess, is that a Chinese nickel major will step in and pay a small multiple to current prices for the proven and probable reserves. It's a good option on long term market demand.

At this point, I would probably be happy with 3 or 4 times current SP. But, I could wait.

Take that CLF.

Regards/