"Good post Babjak1, except the bidding war was between Inco and FalconBridge, not Teck...but Teck did very well buying at 36 and get some $140 for it!"

If I remember correctly Inco paid $4 Billion for Voiseys which was significantly higher than the stink bid offered by Falconbridge.

At the time they were bidding only on the Ovoid which can be mined from surface.

The ovoid contains a total of 32 million metric tonnes of ore.

Subsequently they have discovered much more mineralization at depth.

The total tonnage now stands at 141 million metric tonnes.

Compare that to the 2 million metric tonnes in NOT's 43-101 report.

But hey, drilling in the RoF has really only begun. They are still finding very rich reserves in Sudbury 100+ years later.

I suspect both Vale Inco and Xstrata will be keeping a close eye on NOT. Since they already have smelters in Sudbury, that gives them a leg up on other interested parties.

IMHO todays news release by KWG which gives some details about the discussions that have already taken place and actions that have been taken with respect to the roads and rail will be a wakeup call for investors and majors alike.

There have been a few things that have been holding down the sp's and restraining progress in the RoF. They include:

The economy - it appears to be recovering.

The infrastructure - progress is now being made

Lack of quantity of reserves - E1 is apparently much larger (nickel) than anticipated; chrone reserves keep growing, vanadium etc etc

Drills are turning as we speak. NOT, FWR, PROBE.

UC will be drilling some very prospective targets in august.

IMHO this all adds up to higher SP's and much more interest from majors.

SN