My client who I'd turned on to Noront in 2007 and rarely has asked about NOT in the last 3 years, called me yesterday and asked if the ROF was dead with Cliffs suspending all activities. He'd read an article in the papers apparently.

It surprised me that he heard about the news. But it surprised me more that what he got from it was that the ROF is dead. I won't say the name of the paper but if you know my last name its the last 3 letters. Oh, did I just give that away. :-) Clearly the ROF isn't dead but things have certainly changed.

This is the fault of government for not moving forward fast enough on a 50 billion dollar ++ mining region. Yes, the Ontario Libbers are at the head of it all and should take most of the blame.

But let's not forget Mr Harper and his Conns that just sat by, watched and did nothing to help. They could have easily done something, as they have shown their "abilities" to change laws, etc. whenever they seem to choose. But instead they'd played the political game by letting the Libs in Ontario trip over their feet. If we had a Conservative gov't in Ontario, things would surely be different with Mr Harper.

So while these inept politicians play their silly games, the people who invest in these projects suffer the consequences of those games. Thanks for nothing, you pompous windbags.

I can't see how this doesn't change things in the ROF development. I have no confirmation other than what Mr Coutts stated that timelines have now been extended to 2018. I'm waiting to hear if Peter Marshall calls Paul Semple and asks about those timelines. You'd think that they'd have to be changed now.

And that's a drag. But the good news is..... NOT is still king of the ring.

Another thing that intrigued me in Mr. Coutts statement was his response to the question, if Cliffs was for sale would Noront be interested. His response was that they'd have to take a look at that. Where would they get the capital was my first thought. And then I remembered RCF and Baosteel being on board. And then I remembered Noront already having taken a run at Freewest with seemingly no money.

So I guess that's a possibility. Noront could be an easy target for someone maybe too. Who knows. But I think that there are more cards on the table now. Still need a dealer though, ahem... government, wakey time.

Ah-ahem.... that is my theory.

strato-elk