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Freewest Resources Canada Inc (FWR:TSXV) - News Alert

Freewest Shareholders Approve Arrangement with Cliffs Natural Resources Inc.

Freewest Resources Canada Inc. (TSX VENTURE:FWR) announces that its shareholders approved a previously-announced Arrangement with Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE:CLF)(PARIS:CLF) at a special meeting of Freewest shareholders held today in Montreal. Of a total of 159,808,069 Freewest shares voted, 131,247,614 shares (82.13%) were voted in favour of the Arrangement with Cliffs while 28,560,455 shares (17.87%) were voted against.

The Arrangement was also approved by a majority of the votes cast by Freewest shareholders, excluding the votes cast by Mackenzie I. Watson and Ronny Kay, two of Freewest's executive officers and directors, as required by applicable Canadian securities legislation.

The Arrangement with Cliffs provides that Freewest shareholders will receive, for each Freewest share, a fixed amount of CDN$1.00 in Cliffs shares, based on a five-day volume weighted average trading price of Cliffs' shares on the New York Stock Exchange. If, as expected, the effective date of the Arrangement is January 27, the volume weighted average trading price of Cliffs' shares on the New York Stock Exchange for the relevant five-day period, from January 15 to January 22, as converted into Canadian dollars, is $49.70. As a result, Freewest shareholders will receive 0.0201 of a Cliffs share for each Freewest share, or approximately 20 Cliffs shares for every 1,000 Freewest shares.

As previously announced, Freewest will apply to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (Commercial List) for a final order in respect of the Arrangement tomorrow, January 26. If the final order is granted by the Court, it is expected that the Arrangement will become effective on Wednesday, January 27. Freewest expects that its shares will be delisted from the TSX Venture Exchange shortly thereafter.

"We are very pleased that our shareholders approved the Arrangement with Cliffs with a strong majority," said Mackenzie I. Watson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Freewest. "We look forward to completing the transaction with Cliffs later this week".

About Freewest

Freewest is a mineral exploration company actively exploring for gold, base-metals and chromite within eastern Canada. Corporate information can be accessed on the Internet at

. Freewest's shares are listed on Tier 1 of the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol FWR.