I have holdings in NOT, FNC and PRB (plus FWR and a little SPQ as well). Somewhere down the road there will probably be a consolidation of the three to present a nice package to someone that may want to acquire E1. For me I want to see what FNC and PRB have before we go into anything that looks like negotiations. What we know is that NOT probably has an ore body (minable deposit) with Eagle 1 as it stands. If not they will as they follow the deposit down plunge and the tonnage adds up.

FNC and PRB have great but unproven potential. If we sell that potential based on last weeks prices to cover our downside risk by being acquired by NOT we might get 1 NOT for ~ 2 FNC based on current trading. I could get that by selling my FNC into the market and buying NOT shares or having bought more NOT to start with. It wouldn't require a JV, merger, back-in deal or any such beast. However I bought FNC for the upside. If we hit the same as NOT we see 4.6X the jump in share price that NOT would realize based on our smaller share float. To make things more interesting if there is a hit the % of mineral value that NOT and FNC will realize on being taken out goes up dramatically based on the strategic value of the deposits being located relatively close to each other and the cost effectiveness of mining them together. The same could be argued for PRB.

So for now we have two great properties based on location and potential. You can cover your downside risk today by selling your share and buying NOT or you can go for the 4.6X payoff by waiting for the drill holes. Clearly each investor has their reason for holding or selling but for me pulling my bet off the table before I see my first card isn't going to happen.