Snezz -

I'm intrigued by your position at this point that you have decided that you are going to vote in favour of the takeover of FWR by NOT. A couple of things come to mind:

Noront approached Freewest on Friday afternoon and wanted to discuss the proposition immediately and/or over the weekend. Mac declined. Could have been for a number of reasons. Was he aware that it was a discussion about a takeover; did he want to include his key people, including Don Hoy who is based in Thunder Bay; did he want to discuss it with his BoD; was he not able to change other plans that he might already have..... if he knew it was about a takeover, did he want to give it some serious thought before he had some serious discussions; did he want to talk to his lawyers about what position he should take..... there are innumerable possibilities.

However, a very curious fact remains - based on the fact that he couldn't meet with them - they felt it necessary to prepare a detailed news release (that had to be approved by lawyers, no doubt) over the weekend and one that got released at 6:30 am on Monday morning.

Not much time wasted and lots of work for lots of people over the weekend. Unless of course that they already had it planned that way.......

What was the rush? Why was there such urgency?

Did it have something to do with the fact that two potential railroad routes had already been staked prior to their attempts to do so?

What about all the rumours that Freewest was in serious discussions with Cliffs and that a deal was close?

Were they feeling that control was slipping away?

Whatever it was - one thing I believe one hundred percent is that Noront management and its Board of Directors and financial consultants are in the background orchestrating every move in this chess game. We know who all these people are and we have both good and bad opinions of them. Presidents of other companies in the Ring of Fire and their Boards are watching these plays like hawks.

I just hope that as Noront shareholders we have a management that believes that we are important and who will try and get the best deal for us, as much as for themselves.

This is all speculation but one thing I know for sure - I won't make any decision on whether or not I will vote for this takeover until I hear what Mac Watson has to say about it.

Irish