Edgy, you raise some interesting points sir.

"There can be no other reason for the action ( other than economy of combined scale) and I suggest that it is a waste of time to dwell on other possibilities."

I keep coming back to the early days of the chromite horizon for NOT, back then everyone had some form of contribution to the information regarding chromite and world production, the DD laid out here on this forum was impressive to say the least. Long story short South Africa, the Giant Miner of Chromite is and has been walking a long tapered plank that gets narrower as time goes by, walking a fine line, merely surviving and in real danger of complete collapse. Having said that brings us to Cliffs, at the time of NOT finding chromite Cliffs would have already known what was coming down the pipe supply wise, very real political instibility, electrical instibility, manpower instibility, thier long term contract risk assessment team would have given a long hard look at the goings on in South Africa and would have been forcasting supply for the next 10-20yrs and beyond, so they're in this position of relative supply uncertainty, not a good place to be when your trying to make your mark on the planet. The RoF chrome imo has come along at the most perfect time for the likes of cliffs, voila, they now all of a sudden have a tangible source which can replace each and every ton coming out of SA and elsewhere, to go along with this thought, the ROF chrome can essentially replace all and any chrome that has any uncertainty attached to it. Good for Cliffs, good for the ROF'rs, good for North American supply. Just how much do we know about Cliffs and its intentions with respect to the ROF, Cliffs may just want everything in ground, Perhaps thats the next direction for Cliffs, position themselves for a take out. It's easy to forget that SA sent reps here to the Ring to verify the goings on, they left in haste having witnessed the shear scale of whats really coming out of the ground here. IMO we have'nt heard the last of the SA boys, we will hear and see more as the weeks and months tick by.