Now that we have the FWR merger behind us, the New year ahead has much to deliver. The 43-101 just released on chromite identifies a significant resource and in the New Year, we need to detirmine its feasibility and possible expansion. Cliffs may not be the only North American chromite producer, or even the first. We have been drilling the Eagles Nest for some time with no reported assays, and presumably at depths to 1500m since we have drills there with that capacity. Many of us are doing due dilligence on other opportunities, one of them is Century Mining (CMM). This is a company that has bought the Lamaque and Sigma gold mines in Laval Que. In my reading material on line, I found out that these mines had vertical shafts down to 1097 meters (3600 ft for the metrically challenged) and underground shafts down to the 1817m (5960) level. There has been discussion on this board regarding the feasibility of mining to the depths that Eagle has potential to be open to. I think this information from Lamaque should put everyone at ease, particularly when you realize that the majority of mining was done in Lamaque/Sigma when gold was about $250 per ounce. These gold deposits were called "plugs" which were/are near vertical intrusions that were 100m to 400m wide. Very similar to the Eagle intrusion, where we can have one main shaft, lots of short drifts, cheap underground mining, relatively speaking.

I have great optimism for increasing tonnage early in the New Year to 15 million tonnes for Eagle with the same great grades. In the meantime, I trust everyone is getting caught up in the Christmas spirit, remembering the true meaning of Christmas and are enjoying the company of family and friends. I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and the greatest of health and prosperity in the New Year.

Cheers

Mike