Well, there have been a flurry of posts both here and on SH today about the debt renewal. A couple thoughts:

1. Previous comments alluded to Noront losing 40% of the company and having the loan renegotiated to 15% interest. Obviously, that is not the case. RCF's owneship has not changed, and the interest rate is unchanged at 8%.

2. Someone posted that they gave up a 1% NSR in return for getting this loan extension. Also incorrect. The loan extension made sense to RCF because they can accumulate interest for another six months. The 1% NSR was in return for $2.5m. Eighty percent of that $2.5m is being used for retiring the $2m bridge loan. The remaining $500k (all USD) is being used to provide operating expenses for Noront. The retirement of that loan, while a small percentage of Noront's loans, does improve the balance sheet by a small amount.

3. The NSR, while having been sold for $2.5m, is an interesting metric. This is a Net royalty (common) not a Gross number. Extrapolate 1% NSR at 2.5m backwards, and you see that this implies that Noront believes that Eagles Nest is worth $250m.

4. RCF will allow Noront to buy half of the NSR back for $3.125m. If half of the 1% is ostensibly worth that amount, then they're implying that they value this 1% NSR at $6.25m. Which again implies that they think EN may be worth as much as $600m.

5. RCF is doing everything possible to maximize their ownership of Noront. That's the price a company (Noront) has to pay to move forward in this harsh financing environment. But the reason RCF is so hungry is because they know the value of Noront's assets. They will make a killing off Noront. And in the process, retail shareholders with the fortitude to hang on will also make a pretty penny.

6. There were comments that Frank is going to China to "set the terms" for a deal with the Chinese. That's a bold and somewhat optimistic statement. Frank will not be "setting" the terms. When you go to the Chinese with hat in hand, they set the terms. Frank's only role in the negotiations will be to accept or refuse them. Hopefully they see the value in the deposits and are hungry enough to offer something reasonable. But make no mistake, the Chinese are some of the most astute negotiators on the planet. They will not make mistakes. I have a lot of respect for them. Incidentally, China is a wonderful place to travel.

7. There was a comment along the lines of "now that Noront has money, the court case will be decided in their favor." I disagree. I actually have no idea which was the court case will go, and I suspect that it won't have a big impact on either company. Even if Noront wins, that's irrelevant because KWG would still be able to build a railroad if they come to terms with the Chinese. Even if KWG wins, it doesn't affect Noront because they're looking at the E/W road. I see the court case as a fairly minor event, except of course that it will be useful to clarify mining law with regard to future claim-staking activities.

8. With respect to insiders not purchasing any shares of Noront, it might be that they are not permitted to, due to knowledge of certain things happening in the background. The same may be applicable to KWG more recently.

So really, after all this excitement, it boils down to one thing ... nothing has changed.

We still wait for FN agreements to development, which are key. KWG may be able to pull a rabbit out of the hat within a month if the Chinese offer terms that are acceptable to Frank. Noront and KWG may get a long anticipated present if Trudeau finally provides some funding in the February (?) federal budget to assist with getting roads into the Ring area. And all of us here grow a few months older.

The key thing is still that without support from the FN's, both companies are potentially screwed.