Khareema,

Your post piqued my curiousity before going to bed. You said, "What am I missing here." You usually have answers and insights, not questions. That got me thinking.

The PR from KWG says,

"We have received a proposal to now complete a trade-off study on mining this from underground, using shared facilities with Noront’s underground mining of the Eagle’s Nest nickel and PGM deposit. That would seem a logical and productive next area of inquiry to move forward the understanding of the Ring of Fire’s economic viability."

The first question that jumps out is WHO have they received this proposal from? Noront seems to be the answer, on the surface. But is it actually Noront? I would imagine that there is a small chance that the people at Noront are scratching their heads about this. A much larger chance though, that they already know what's happening here. I think that there is a small but distinct possibility that the proposal came from Fancamp, RCF, BAO, or even (very remotely) Cliffs. However, let's say that there is a 90%+ chance that the proposal came from Noront.

IF the proposal came from Noront, then why? I suspect that the phrase in the PR, "... to move forward the understanding of the Ring of Fire's economic viability," is important. This to me suggests that this proposal has come about as a result of work on Noront's EA. Is Noront worried about the EA not being positive enough? I wouldn't think that that would be the case. Hm.

I would, however, think that if my odds are logical, and this is Noront trying to explore all options for the EA, then this hints that the EA might not be released in the very near future. Disclaimer: I've traded in and out of NOT and KWG (and SPQ, and FWR) and at the moment, I hold exactly 1m shares of KWG and no Noront. I've been hoping that something would happen with the easement decision in late summer or early fall, and that it would presage the EA. Therefore, my plan (a bit of a large gamble, admittedly) was that I hoped to score on KWG and then move funds into Noront. In the past couple weeks, I've been questioning my rationale, but holding firm. The possibility that this "proposal" indicates that the EA might still be many weeks away from being finalized gives me a bit of breathing room.

But again, "What am I missing here?"

Is it possible that this is simply a move on the chess board, firing "a shot across the bow" to warn Cliffs of something? But wouldn't Cliffs already be privy to this info, by virtue of being classified an insider due to their percentage holdings? Or did Cliffs move their person off the BOD at KWG a while ago? I can't remember that off-hand. I do seem to recall it being a topic of conversation quite a while ago, perhaps because once someone leaves the Board there is still a period (12 months?) where insider trading rules specifically govern conduct, above and beyond percentage of ownership regulations? I don't feel like I'm thinking in the right direction here, although something nags at my mind.

"Using shared facilities" is an interesting phrase. You said, "sharing costs of the ramp" or something to that effect. I'm not sure that that is accurate. Could it not also be possible that "shared facilities" could refer to facilities that are financed/built by Noront and leased out to KWG on a cost-recovery basis, either per-ton of ore, or perhaps by assigning specific annual variable and fixed costs for access to things such as maintenance facilities? Perhaps Noront is just looking at their own EA and trying to determine if they can lease out facilities to an adjoining property to enhance revenue from their facilities?

IF Noront is simply trying to make incremental revenues from their operations by leasing out facilities, then why are they doing this? Is it because the EA is "not there" yet in terms of being positive enough? I doubt it. Is it because they know (by virtue of an errant drill hole) that they should be paying more attention to some sort of partnership re. the chromite? I can't imagine that they'd want to completely ignore chromite when putting together their EA. They have no direct options because they don't have a drilled resource, but perhaps they know enough about chromite in the area that it could be an elephant in the room, and they're trying to leverage that knowledge by proposing to work with KWG and Fancamp?

Or maybe there is a recognition that the current smallish Canadian players in the Ring would be well-served to work together cohesively. Maybe there is a recognition that partnerships are better than consolidation, and by becoming involved in a tangled web, they increase strength for resisting bigger players (Cliffs or others) from picking off individual companies easily. I don't necessarily see Noront as an easy target, because of the involvement from RCF and BAO, but anything can be bought, for a price.

As you can see, I have a lot of stray thoughts right now. And I'm not convinced that any of them are correct. There is certainly something going on just under the surface here.