"a buyout offer at something like $1.80, which would please some as a great gain over their average cost, and anger others, being well below their cost and their expectations."

Would a 1.80 buyout offer be such a bad thing at this point? Even the unfortunate that bought at +7 dollars a couple of years ago should have at least reduced their average down to the sub 3 dollar mark by now. In the past buyouts in the ROF, there was only one bidder (cliffs), and the final buyout was at twice the original offer, which would come to 3.50-4.00 here and more if a white knight showed up (Teck?). At any rate keep the 550m figure at the front of your thought process for a while.

Best regards

K