The rejection by Wyloo is no surprise.  Guess they just wanted to make it publicly official. . There has been a behind the scenes tug of war between BHP and Wyloo.  As mentioned previuosly the BHP offer was approved unanimously by the board members who participated but pretty unclear why Wyloo wouldn't have particpated and voted no. Unless there is some kind of regulatory restriction that's a little odd.

Seems like right now we have two bohemoth Australian companies whose billionaire owners are swinging their dicks at each other. Many have wondered if a Canadian company would enter the fray but perhaps the reluctance is the possibility that if challenged BHP and Wyloo may just join ranks seeing as they both have put a very high value and importance on the ROF minerals.  Half of something is better than all of nothing.  It's still a number of years and lots of capital investment needed before any minerals come out of the ground.  Will BHP incraese their offer.  Suppose if they are close to the majority needed they probably will.  Will Wyloo actually submit an offer. Not sure at this stage they have to. Worst(I suppose) case scenario for them is that BHP gets their majority, Wyloo retains it's cornerstone position by exercising the loan conversion(which effectively triples the $$ value), and becomes a thorn in the side of BHP going forward. Best case, BHP doesn't get the majority and reluctantly withdaws, Wyloo matches the offer and maybe bumps it up a little, and takes the company private which was their original intent. Hard to see how Noront board could not support an equivalent or better offer.  Wyloo by getting in first really are in the catbird seat.

Without a counter offer suspect Noront sp will revert back to the $.55 - $.58 range.

One indicator of how BHP feels they are doing in getting shares is the provision that they can close the share deposit opt in date at anytime with 35 days notice as long as it allows for a minimum of 10 days prior to the offer closing date of Nov 9th.

Went back for clarity to review the chronology of events that led up to where we are now.....

-Dec 2020 - Wyloo purchases 22% of Noront along with $15mil convertible loan ($.20/sh) from RCF

-From Globe and Mail - July 31 2021

-A regulatory filing this week shows that BHP first approached Toronto-based Noront in April with a proposal to acquire a 9.9 per cent stake in the company.While Noront was in favour of the arrangement, BHP needed the approval of Wyloo, the company’s biggest debt holder, before it could go ahead. Wyloo refused to give its consent.

BHP came back in May with a new offer to acquire 19.9 per cent of Noront at a 10 per cent premium to the recent market price. Once again, Wyloo didn’t play ball. “On May 17, 2021, Wyloo informed Noront that Wyloo had determined it would not provide its consent,” the document said.

On May 27 2021 Wyloo announced a proposal to purchase all of Noront for $.31/sh (Wyloo holds Convertible loan for $15mil @ $.20/sh maturing Sept 30 2021)

On July  27 BHP  submits offer for majority stake in Noront at $.55/sh