As we sit on the final day for FWR shareholders to tender shares to NOT, one thing has me bewildered as to the strategy of all of this:

Why did Wes (Noront) go on record twice as saying this was the final offer during a bidding war?

Any good poker player knows that if one is bluffing and looks beat, then part of the game is to make it look like you are considering a raise before actually mucking the hand. That is, posturing as if one is considering a different move than the one that the player intended to make all along in reaction to the other player's action.

This is the one part of this whole affair that I cannot get my head around. Long before the river card was turned Wes just turned over his hand and said this is the best I have, raise me or I will fold.

Now it might have been done to communicate to FWR shareholders that Noront would not be increasing its offer and if they wanted Noront shares, they would have to tender. But quite frankly as I have discussed before, Cliffs offer of .90 cents represented receiving a Noront share at $3.15 cents less any value the $4 warrant had.

With Noront unable to break $2.70 cents during the past two weeks, there would be no motivation outside of tax deferral for a retail holder to tender their shares. They would have been better suited selling at .90 cents and buying Noront at $2.50. This represented better ratios than the 7 for 2 Noront offered. To announce this was the final offer was pretty brave in face of the Cliff giant just getting started.

But why do it? Especially if one was serious about getting shares tendered. Especially before you saw the next move that the major was about to make.

Is this Noront offer a shot in the dark that brought out a sleeping giant to the point that Noront is now retreating? Was the "final offer language" a way of waving the White flag? Was it done to keep outside interests like MM Asset and K2 from getting in on the hope that they could get a double out of a bidding war?

I believe that after this is over, it would make for a good question at the shareholders meeting. What was their strategic thinking process and did they anticipate the end result? That of a boom to FWR shareholders (in terms of the price), the possibility of having a friendly or non-friendly unknown giant next door (remember, Noront currently has JVs with Freewest in the ROF), and what has essentially become a downplaying of a series of substantial Noront NRs lost in the haze of this bidding war.

Let me repeat that. Noront has released some excellent NRs concerning all of its properties. A sort of year in review. And the share price continues to fall for reasons more likely related to speculation concerning the bid rather than expectations surrounding the drill results.

This will either go down as completely brilliant from a strategic point of view or extremely daft and shortsighted. It all depends on the final outcome at the end of the day. Until that is known, I am still bewildered at the execution of the bid.

M1.