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Freewest. On November 23, 2009, we entered into a definitive arrangement with Freewest Resources Canada Inc. (“Freewest”) to acquire Freewest, including its interests in the Ring of Fire properties, which comprise three premier chromite deposits in Ontario, Canada. The acquisition is consistent with our strategy to broaden our mineral diversification and will allow us to apply our expertise in open-pit mining and mineral processing to a chromite ore resource base which would form the foundation of North America’s only ferrochrome production operation. The planned mine is expected to produce 1 to 2 million tonnes of high-grade chromite ore annually, which will be further processed into 400 to 800 thousand tonnes of ferrochrome. The transaction closed on January 27, 2010.

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