John' why not give KWG a call and discuss this article with them instead of spinning your own hypothosis. If you do, I think you'll find that the project financing package mentioned is (as stated in the article) a vehicle using tax incentives available in Canada and will be used to finance the mining of Big Daddy and not as you state

"According to this release, they are both in the process of arranging a project financing package, apparently to drill for these other aforementioned deposits."

Frank would like to convince Cliffs to mine Big Daddy first, and if he can arrange the financing though KWG, as a partner, using Canadian tax incentives, he will have a compelling case for them to do so.

There is no 3rd party financing in Cleveland as you suggest

"so he continues, we are finding a Sympahetic hearing in Cleveland...WOW...I know Cleveland is where Cliffs is , but it seems to me from that wording, that they are NOT involved...So then this tells me that a new Partner may be coming on board, and that these 5 JV claims may indeed be drilled further for the Ni, Pges and VMS deposits after all"

Cliffs is "the sympathetic hearing" referred to.

"The attractiveness of a project financingvehicle using tax incentives available in Canada and having a partnerlike KWG is that Cliffs' financial metrics aren't affected by this hugecapital cost, so we're finding a sympathetic hearing in Cleveland,"said Smeenk.

Regards

SRV