Columbo, your posts touched on a good point which is worth some elaboration. A junior-for-junior share exchange is inherently weak, involving no cash or near cash. Unless of course the deal was "cooked" , that is, pre-agreed. That is obviously not the case here. FWR seems to have a very co-operative arrangement with CLF. There is no way CLF could maintain its strategic interest holding in the combined company. Simple math. Nor does CLF hold a strategic interest in NOT currently, because it would have been disclosed. NOT knows all this, so perhaps the bid is simply intended to force CLF's hand. Were NOT to be outbid by CLF here, it would not be a bad thing for NOT overall, as it would force any other interested major to move its plans forward , creating earlier liquidity for NOT's immense holdings. NOT's BoD are money guys, and have zero emotional attachment to the property. If the NOT Cr can be turned into an income stream earlier than otherwise, NOT might be able to realize its true potential in all minerals much earlier with less dilution . However , the gauntlet has clearly been thrown down to CLF, since CLF will lose its strategic holding in FWR (and the RoF) if the bid succeeds. The reason I now do not believe NOT's bid is supported by a major is because there is no money or highly liquid shares involved. So, I think it comes down to a CLF/NOT contest. Likely, everyone wins !