Edgy, I agree with your first statement, and I am in agreement with your second statement. I also find favour with your third conclusion. If Cliffs is defeated in their bid to aquire Freewest, then the fun begins.

The " victors " will have a company controlled by a loser ( Cliffs ), and a " lame duck " CEO who favoured the " loser " over them. Somehow, some still believe in him. That is certainly a recipie for the share price to head south. Whether it plummets or slides ( I favour the slide ) it will end up cheaper.

Now, if retail wins and Cliffs takes a passive stance, what happens?

I've been around these markets since 1965 and have never known a situation like this. Has anyone else??? What happens to these retail shareholders? Maybe JD has a new career ahead of him. I want you to know I am not mocking them. I am serious. I want them to win very badly. But is it possible you can win and still end up a loser? And if your last statement is correct, will we all be losers??? Perhaps we will not come away quite as well off as we could have.

I think it was you who recently stated you still thought FWR would have been better off merging with Noront. I think you are right. There was too much emotional baggage that got in the way of rational thinking. Some are having a lot of fun at the expense of our puny share price. Like them, we have the resource and there should be a lot more to find. That may take a while yet. When we do and we get that share price up where we'd like it, and it keeps heading north, that deal they turned down is going to look pretty good.

In the meantime we just have to deal with the way things are. We were all told in advance there was a Christmas break coming. We had the same thing happen last year ( I'll hear about it if I'm wrong ). I made a commitment to sell and take advantage of it this year. I didn't!! I was too da-- chicken because I thought some good news would come out and be left in a snow squall ( dust if yor're from the praries ). So, to Iamsudbury, you are not alone. But next year.............................??????