I see your point here,

"In a perverse way, aren't they actually cutting down on their present offered value in the long run?"

You can look at it in the sense of dilution of Noront, but it only affects the Noront shareholders as such. The dilution of Noront only gives Freewest a "larger percentage" of Nornont, and may in fact pave the way for a "share reverse split" in the future.

I have invested in Noront from May of 2007 and I am loathe to see further dilution as the outstanding shares when I purchased mine were approx. 135 million. Today, you are sitting at approx. 175 million million with another potential what, 55ish million to be added to the float??? I sure hope that there is good value in this merger as I am frightened of being diluted into oblivion...

I am going on record as saying, I personally don't care if Freewest and Noront amalgamate. I can't even go over to the Freewest board anymore, it is beyond making any sense. All I read the other evening is attacks of "Noront pumpers coming over here to take us over with their puny offer". For what it's worth, build your own mine. The Return on Investment will not be as rosy as you like it, in MY opinion, but go for it. Let Cliffs build the infrastructure and we can "use it" to move our ore out, at a fee of course. I DO know that amalgamation is the "better way" to get value, but I see how the folks at freewest can't come to grips with the offer so, good luck to them. I do know that the Freewest forum will have very little impact on the eventual tendering of shares as I would be so bold as to guess that the total amount of shares held by the posters on the forum will not total 30 or 40%. Let's wait and see and... whatever. To see everyone take sides as they did... reminds me of the US Civil War. Good thing it is only on a computer and not on the battle field...

I can see that with adequate information in our NI 43-101's and feasibility studies completed by 1st quarter, 2011, that is the catalyst to get an equity financing to start the ball rolling to mine this Eagle's nest. That's not too far into the future. Eagle's nest isn't that big, but it is very high grade and won't take very long to mine and create a very good return on investment. Bring it on, Wes. Let's get ready to mine, with or without Freewest. Just my opinion, of course...

God Bless all Noront Shareholders.

Herb :-}