Khareema, your comments are definitely thought provoking. Especially your last paragraph were you propose a possible scenario of a 3rd party. During the FWR takeover I had a few discussions with other posters who thought that the chineese may be backing Cliffs. If you remember back to one of Cliff's NR's they stated that they had someone in the background that was supporting them. They never mentioned names but threw that comment out there for whatever reason, I suspect mostly for intimidation. As I mentioned in my previous post China may be watching these events closely. It may be that they are backing Cliffs with the hope of securing chromite for the future.

Your comments about the share price are also intriguing as I have also wondered this myself. I am very green when it comes to understanding how a stock can be manipulated, however I have thought that SPQ was a prime example of the possibility of such. SPQ has released good NR after good NR without an increase in SP. Why has the SP remaind at 51/2 to 6 cents for so long? I am sure that someone was accumulating at these prices while others, mostly retail, were nervous about jumping into a stock that was so stagnant. Cliffs has probably been accumulating for months. Allowing the SP to rise a few cents before making an offer may be to their advantage. I don't think that Cliffs could have made a 10 cent offer and expected Mr. Novak and the BOD to take them seriously.

As an aside I wonder what Noront is thinking at this time. NOT has outwardly expressed their desire to consolidate the ROF. It appears that Cliffs is one step ahead of them. It would make no sense at all for NOT to attempt a takeover of SPQ as they have already openly admitted that they cannot compete with Cliffs.

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