I don’t believe & wouldn’t go as far as to say they are working together, but for some reason I don’t feel the pressure of a low ball offer, as some here do. Remember NOT’s SP was at .55 & Cliffs had cash back them too! They took over Freewest without a 43-101 report, so I believe they knew back then what is at stake here. If Cliffs wanted to or could have, they would have already made that play. I have the feeling that someone has already spoken for NOT & has put out the word to back off or else!
I think there are some major players sitting & watching very carefully (maybe already talking) at what is happening here & what Cliff’s are up too.
Now I may be way off base here, but it’s seems like a game of Chess to me. I would even venture a guess that mutual understands have been reached, between Majors, as to which companies can take over which juniors? This area has many Juniors (what approx. 40?) & it needs to be consolidated. The longer the consolidation takes, the more chance the juniors have of hitting something big & driving up the cost of consolidation. There seems to be a lot of drilling plan for this summer! One could say a window of opportunity for our juniors to take there best stab at what they maybe sitting on & let the chips fall where they may. My concern in this area is that the juniors may not have the means to drill deep enough to really show what they have? E.I. Frewest! Unless exposed in the next 6-18 months &, if they are bought out, it could be years before we find out just what is there?
The area IMO is large enough for maybe even several mining companies to share in the cost of the infrastructure & it could be a necessity, depending on what they hit? All I’m suggesting is that maybe NOT & friends have conceded SPQ &KWG (as Pawns) to cliffs without interference & with the understanding that they are left with there (Queen – 7 new discoveries in 30 months & counting) JV & land holding to develop the ROF together or until another Major steps in for NOT or other juniors?
Just my thoughts on your question…
CH.
