Since Canseco stated in his post that NOT is

-currently talking with Xstrata and Vale who can't believe the widths and grades that we are currently hitting. Very interested in the chrome.

I thought I would provide a little info from Wikipedia concerning these two companies. Interesting reading.

Xstrata is an international mining company founded in Switzerland. In August 2005, Xstrata purchased a 19.9% stake in Falconbridge Limited a diversified Canadian mining company producing copper,, nickel, aluminum and zinc. Xstrata successfully acquired the remaining 80% of Falconbridge in August 2006. (hostile takeover) Xstrata is one of the world's largest diversified mining groups and apparently has grown by making acquisitions. Has major operations/projects in eighteen countries including Canada. Is a major producer of copper, coking coal , thermal coal, Nickel, Ferrochrome, vanadium and zinc.. Smaller scale involvement in aluminum, gold, lead and silver.

Vale Inco: Products Nickel, Copper, Cobalt. PGMs

Vale Inco is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Brazilian Mining company Vale. It is Vale's nickel mining and metals division and is headquartered in Toronto Canada. It produces nickel, Copper, Cobalt, platinum, palladium, Rhodium, ruthenium, Iridium, gold and Silver. Prior to being purchased by CVRD (now Vale) in 2006, Inco was the world's second largest producer of nickel , and the third largest mining Company outside South Africa or Russia of p;atinum-group metals.

Some interesting history: On Oct.11/2005, Inco announced a friendly takeover bid to buy out the operations of longtime rival Falconbridge for $12 billion. If approved, the deal would have made Inco the world's largest producer of nickel. Xstrata (which already owned ~20% of Falconbridge shares) subsequently submitted a Hostile Takeover bid for Falconbridge, resulting in a bidding war between Inco and Xstrata. The Xstrata bid was successful, but not before Falconbridge employed a poison pill to delay the acquisition, raising its share price from $28 to $62.50 in the meantime.

On August 14, 2006 Brazilian mining company CVRD extended an all-cash offer to buy Inco for $17 billion. That offer received approval from the Canadian government's investment review agency on October 19, and was accepted by Inco shareholders on October 23. Part of the takeover deal was that CVRD would operate Inco as a separate nickel mining division; all of CVRD's nickel operations, were transferred to Inco's management. Inco was delisted from the NYSE on November 16, 2006 and the TSX on January 5, 2007. According to its current web site, Inco is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Vale (formerly CVRD).