Gerwin, you wrote:

Glorieux,

What are the risks for a company that has the funds to finance infra? EA and Native issues will be resolved simply because Canada can financialy not afford NOT to solve them.

All public figures tell us that NOT is worth arround 3,-.
Think about all info not yet available to us.

I've been holding / buying since 2006 and simply don't see the "risks" as you mention them.

Regards,

There is no risk IMO that this will not get developed at some point. The risk for the company looking to buy us out are time and costs. EA and Native issues have the potential to hold mining activities hostage for years...see Voisey's Bay as an example of Native delaying mining activities. The NPV depends on when mining starts and even though NOT has a timetable, it does not mean they will get the required permitting/EA/Native issues resolved on time. They are hopeful and have a plan but that does not guarantee anything.

Processing costs, especially for the chromite is very electricity driven. Delicate negotiations in these matters with the province can save the company operating the mine millions of dollars. Therefore buying out NOT before electricity rates are established makes it harder for them to calculate costs and profits. The infrastructure costs are huge up there and no company should bare the whole cost structure. Again, negotiations with both levels of government will be key to minimize the costs to the company developing these mines.

These companies would most likely be willing to wait and pay a little more to have a clearer picture on costs and timeline to mining. Cliff's only came out of the shadows when NOT exposed them. They would of much preferred to stay in the shadows for these exact reasons but they could not take a chance of losing the Chromite to NOT. If a company thought it was the only suitor and no competing bids would come and they thought they could get NOT for cheap then we would probably see something happen. However, NOT will not go cheap. I expect a bidding war when the time is right.

For these reasons I am more convinced that a buyout is not imminent. There has been discussions of iceroads and landing strip permits and maybe this got some excited but I believe we will see prices under 70 cents again with time to accumulate. NOT's current mining plan is for 2015-assuming everything goes according to plan. That is still a long time away with many hurdles to overcome.

However, the risk of this not being developed is ZERO in my opinion. The only real question is when and by whom.

Glorieux