"Why would they want to do that?"

Because Cliffs would pay more and Noront made money on Freewest offer so why not repeat. There could be many reasons besides a small chance of aquiring a neighbour.

Strange question, imo.

p.s. I actually think that Noront is not interested in buying chromite holding neighbours but could bite at neighbours holding other metals that NOT already owns. Economy of scale is the incentive.