Just thinking out loud here folks...

Cliffs signalled it's interest in RoF was serious when the first took 19% of KWG. It was no surprise when they subsequently took out FWR and SPQ.

Cliffs appear to be bottom feeders and they bought FWR and SPQ at 25 cents on the dollar.

Cliffs are also shrewed negotiators and investors and know how to take advantage and use their leverage to their advantage. At the moment they are playing hard ball with Frank Smeenk and KWG and have served notice that they will freeze KWG out and not make another offer.

Reality is that they will sooner or later want to get KWG to complete their ownership of Big Daddy.

At first I assumed that Cliffs would have little or no interest in Noront because they don't seem interested in Nickel and the blackbird deposit is inferior to Black Thor and Big Daddy.

On sober second thought, they will want to tie up all the chromite so there are no other competetors in the area. Besides, the nickel could pay for a lot of infrastructure.

Noront's sp is relatively low now so they are ripe for takeover. Perhaps it is time for someone to make a move on them?

Will it be Cliffs or one of the major players like Vale, Rio Tinto, xstrata or BHP Billiton?

Personally I do not belive the big players will make a move until there is more consolidation and infrastructure is at least in the planning stage.

It would seem to make sense that Vale or Xstrata would be the most interested since they both have a Nickel Smelter in Sudbury and a ready workforce/mining suppliers.

The RoF is a lot closer to Sudbury than Voisey's Bay and they will not be required to build a new smelter as Vale is doing in Newfoundland.

SN