My, My. Even johndefur has changed his tune, slightly! Can you say, disappointing offer??? And to top things off, I have read from the Freewest board that all those retail from over there were waiting for was for Mac and the Freewest BOD to give their recommendation... well, there it is!!!

Mac and BOD have recommended that all Freewest shareholders take this offer (puny, by johndefur's own words) and tender their shares to it. So,

Are all Freewest Shareholders now going to do as they said and tender their shares?

What if Noront comes up with more results and the price of Noront goes up much more? Does it make sense to tender your shares to Freewest even though it is valued at 55 cents by Cliffs? I am not saying 'I told you so', but after listening to all the crying about,"foul from Noront, Noront is bad" etc, will Freewest shareholders blindly go to tender their shares because the special committee has suggested so?

I don't know what to think anymore. Tens of millions of tons of excellent chromite and THIS is what Cliffs has to offer. I am very disappointed in that offer, even though I don't own any FWR anymore. I was expecting a little bit more from Cliffs.

Kinda makes me think about Khareema's post from a few days ago. He heard a rumour that the new offer would be around this price and all the Freewest holders mocked him... I haven't heard one poster say to Khareema, "I'm sorry I didn't believe you" or,"your were right on, Khareema". Nobody seems to be able to say that. Too bad. I for one want to say, you were right on, Khareema!!!

Now, what happens next? We keep extending this offer stuff by months, it seems. This merger, takeover, go it alone may take until next year at this time before things "may" get settled. First, do we need a "slightly different" offer from Noront??? Like for only the ROF assets??? Have to wait for that one, I guess. Is Mac and Board willing to sell out to Cliffs no matter how good the offer is from Noront, just because their mad at Noront for the way they made the offer? This is "business" and "money" folks. IF you think for one second that you should blindly follow Mac because HE said you should and accept the offer from Freewest, perhaps investing in Junior explorers is not for you. This is YOUR money, not Mac's. It really doesn't matter how nice a guy Mac is (and I truly believe he IS a great guy), accepting this offer from Cliffs is a tad iffy.

Go ahead, take the offer if you are a freewest shareholder. It really doesn't bother me a bit. IF Noront goes up substantially, just remember not to come to the forums and cry the blues because Cliffs is lagging behind. Who knows, maybe there really isn't any ore there on Noront's ground. Maybe they just made it all up (like I have read on the Freewest board a few times over the past few weeks). Then Noront will likely go back to under a dollar, right??? Yea, right ;-}. Believe it if you want, but I held the core from the ROF when I went to visit Mr. Nemis 1 1/2 years ago. It is very real, and they keep finding more of it all the time. I am happy with my investment, for now. Time will tell if it is real or not, not forum squabbling.

Freewest, good luck to you guys who own it. I wish you all the best. Let's hope you are correct in assuming that there is more bidding to come, because that will mean a win/win for everyone who owns either one in the ROF in the time to come. I am starting to get excited again (just a little bit though) because I feel like the end game may finally be coming around the bend and into sight. The end game is the part I am looking forward to the most. Offers and hopefully counter offers for what we as Noront shareholders have as assets in the ground. It WILL get mined, just like the chromite at FWR WILL get mined. We should all be happy after the end game is over...

God Bless all Noront Shareholders.

Herb