Hey Blue, yay the rumour mills are still running, and these answers are without prejudice. I see some of the Vale boys are being sued and tensions through out the community are increasing as for every job at Vale 4 others are also lost. The small realtailer is hanging on for Xmas sales. Talk of large numbers retiring will cause long start up delays once this theater is resolved but it appears either side will back down. ... I hear the Xstrata smelter is running near full capacity with the help of FNX , Vale and LIBERT's ore. I hear as a stand alone smelter with just ni Rim and a couple others they could not. I hear the closing of a mine or two will allow the manpower required to operate Ni Rim so production good stay the same. The miners will not be affected in Timmins as the surface facility closes as this facility is a different operations. I guess the Timmins miners could work at Ni Rim but i am not sure on their contract language because of the current union members on lay off at this time in Falconbridge...................Xstrata and the union are talking, i hear if things stay the same then members would be happy. I would think as long as Vale stays out their Smelter is running on full capacity then their making money and would be saving by moving the Timmins operation to the huge Rouyon Smelter in Quebec. I hear they will have huge savings from tax relief and hydro cost so i guess another busisness decision........................beer talk with friends always leads to politics, as the 4 % ni production from Vale in Sud is being scaled down, or so we kinda believe. I hear of more ni exploration in Australia and Brazil and these two mines will replace 1 3/4 % of Sud ore and Vale intends to scale back manpower. Rumours of Vale not meeting 2013 emissions will cause them to close the Copper Cliff smelter and buy out the XsTrata smelter as their production cost will be high as their ore body depletes. ........I like Liberty here as a investment because of our fudamentals that allow access to our partners smelter and the fact that out Cobalt in McAra will be in Global demand. with out prejudice..Traps7