Your question is a good one and it would take all day to answer in full.

The quick answer is that one producer would have economies of scale. It would be cheaper to ship a milled product rather than the ore. So one mill as opposed to several.

Another consideration is nickel vs chromite. Chromite is very dense. I know very little about the process for chromite but I doubt if it is the same process, even at the crushing and milling stage. Clearly it is a different smelting process.

These are very early days in exploration at RoF. At present things seem to be concentarted along the red line in the ultrmafics (Eagle 1 & 2 through Big Daddy, black thor and label and on to AT12.) However it is doubtful that this is the only mineralization of significance in the area. The mine sites could be spread out in the entire larger area.

Probably the majors will first concentrate on FWR, SPQ, FNC, UC, Probe, KWG as these will go cheaper than NOT. NOT may hold out because they have more land and enough $$$ to drill this year.

But our concern is that the hedge fund will push NOT to sell before they should. Just as retail stores like to turn over the inventory and keep the money moving, so too the hedge funds will want to sell this and move on to the next project. They look at the 'opportunity cost" of holding one investment too long.

I don't see this being the same situation as the oil sands. One or 2 majors will end up with most of the resources by buying out the juniors. Then they will start with open pits and a mill. At first they will ship the ore directly to Sudbury until a mill and infrastructure is built.

We are getting ahead of ourselves here however. First the ontario gov't and the feds have to step up to the plate and build a road. Power will be a problem. But the value in the ground seems to justify the expense.

With market rallys like we are seeing recently and commodity prices rising, it is puting pressure on all the stakeholders to act.

Hang on to your shares.

SN