On the 15th January Freewest will hold a special meeting to vote on the Cliffs deal. Should the deal be carried, Freewest shareholders will receive C$0.90 per share in fixed value of Cliffs shares, with the precise number of Cliffs shares to be based on their market value on the NYSE shortly before the effective date of the transaction, expected to be in January 2010.

Presently, Cliffs is trading at around $45.

So the deal (if carried) would likely be concluded by 22nd January 2010. This date is no accident.

The higher the Cliffs share price, the fewer shares Freewest holders recieve at the 22nd January.

On 29th January 2010 Cliffs report 4Q Earnings and annual earnings for 2009.

Historically, the company trades at 8 to 12 times earnings. At the moment it is trading at 34 times earnings.

When it reports at the end of January for 2009, what do you think will happen to the stock price and hence the exchanged Freewest shares (which incidentally you have already been charged 20% tax on for the transaction) ?