Thanks for a very informative and interesting post. I would like to present my view of the same data , much of which should be set in the historic perspective of the CLF takeover of FWR.

There was no doubt at that time that many posters (myself included) were quite surprised to see Xstrata do nothing to protect its major cr interests. But they did not, and the cost of attempting to wind back that clock would be in the billions, not the $200 million it would have taken to seal both FWR and possibly much of the RoF. That is historic fact. Why did they pass on that opportunity ?

Xstrata not only has many other opportunities, but also the current regime there is not known to be mine developers. In that context, they would be more likely to attempt a takeover of CLF than attempt to develop a major infrastructure and mine. They also do not appear to have the types of strategic alliances such as Arcellor that provides some backbone to CLF's aggressive approach. Development risk management is not in my view their long suit.

So the chances of a second round strategic development by Xstrata are slim to none except thgrough a $20 billion plus takeover of CLF.

What might be possible is an alliance with CLF but that seems equally remote.

Finally, we are seeing virtually no significant brownfield developments other than in precious metals. That is likely to remain the situation until either the world financial system has further stabilised on a number of fronts, or the majors are swimming in so much cash they have nothing else to apply it to. More likely shareholders are looking for dividends for the same reasons, and mining megaprojects will remain few and far between.

Hopefully some change in that perspective comes sooner rather than later.