You make a lot of excellent points R.

However I am not sure how you explain what happened at Voisey's Bay if all your arguements are correct.

I see these 2 as very similar. Voisey's was as remote as RoF and had no infrastructure.

My perception of why Inco went after Voisey's so aggressively is that they wanted to protect their market share.

CVRD has a nickel smelter in Sudbury.

Xstrata has operations in Sudbury and Timmins and are have expertise in Chromite

Apparently the road is going from Nakina to Marten Falls and on to RoF. This gets them close to Timmins and Sudbury.

If E1 turns out to be as big a nickel resource as predicted, I could see both these cos wanting the resources AND wanting to stop the other from getting it. So how long do they wait...until Cliffs gets more of a toehold and the price goes higher?

Where are the greener pastures? A resource like this only comes along now and then.

Xstrata is the likely suitor. They will want the chrome and the nickel. There is not a lot of talk in the news about either company in RoF but I understand they are both very interested.

Yes I believe the market thinks the way you do. But it was the same at Voisey's until the first bid was made. Then all hell broke loose.

Only one man's opinion

SN