... most of today's posts and commenting:

This offer is a merger of two companies and not a buy-out, so I see nothing negative about it. Some could argue that my shares are not valued fairly. The truth is that neither is being valued fairly as are the vast majority of mining companies in this market. The major point of this merger to the shareholders is do you want to ride on each individual horse or on a team? I say a team is stronger and faster. It is not sufficient to have enough resource for a mine. You need enough to attract solid investment ( perhaps there already is interest and sparked this) and produce efficiency from scale of that mine. Merger with FWR is just a start of that process. I think Bay St. is aware of goings on, they just need a good excuse to buy in.

Also I do not see Noront vs Cliffs for possession of FWR. I see it as a combined entity that may be aquired by a major entity later.

In my opinion many of the present companies have to merge or be bought out by others to produce larger blocks to make them more attractive to the biggies or even to proceed on their own. Small mines work agains each other through duplication of small mills while they could be profiting more through the higher efficiency of larger ones. On the chromite issue alone, the first one out of the gate gets the prize and the remaining ones will have to wait for decades for that first one to exhaust it's resource or buy the neighbours out ( per comment already posted on the main board).

There is also the chromium vs nickel issue. Which is more likely to produce big profits and
sooner. I am betting on nickel because there is a smaller market for chromium and if you are not there real quick you are left holding. I think Noront management sees not much of a future with regard to chromium if the resources are not combined and done quickly, hence the offer.

Some look at this offer as share dillution on the part of Noront. Sure there would be more shares out but there would also be proportionally more assets to back them up and the sum in my opinion would be worth more than the two individuals. There is no net dillution only a numerical appearence of such.

The point about FWR management receiving hefty disbursements is a valid issue to Noront management and to me as a Noront shareholder even if it is not a point of contention to FWR shareholders. Management resceives salaries for their work while additional compensation is for going beyond the call of duty. The amounts in question seem exorbitant for the size of the company no matter how excellent the performance of management was.

The cooming AGM is likely to see some information regarding reasons as to why this offer was made now. I also expect some drill results to surface before the meeting, probably by approaching weekend so that shareholders have time to digest the news before said meeting.

Just another man's opinion.