RE:Interesting , TUO's HighperI've been holding back commenting on Mitsubishi, as I thought Even Steven would have commented by now. Steve, as Sooner has already indicated, was the first to mention that a Japanese company could get involved in an interest in WRN, and I think I remember Steve also talking about royalty smelters during that same timeframe. I will tell you what I know about Mitsubishi, and hopefully Even Steven will eventually chime in.
Mitsubishi Materials is one of the eight or nine companies under the umbrella of the mother company Mitsubishi Group or Mitsubishi Corporation. Mitsubishi Corporation is a huge Japanese conglomerate, with a market cap of 50.5 Billion U.S. Dollars. It is hard to describe the relationship of the individual companies under their corporate umbrella - they are more than divisions - they are considered stand-alone companies, but all a part of the mother company. They have offices all over the world, including at least seven in the US, and two in Canada, one in Vancouver and one in Toronto. I have been in their Vancouver office on the top floor of Canada Place building in downtown Vancouver on Granville St. (close to the WRN office). Mitsubishi Corp is listed on the OTC Exchange in the US, but Mitsubishi Materials is not listed on any of the US exchanges - they are listed on the Tokyoand Osaka exchanges in Japan, and are part of the Nikkei 225 stock market index.
My point is that Mitsubishi Corporation is a huge 50.5 Billion USD Corporation and are plenty big enough to be considered as a good company to supply some tension to RIO. Even Steven can fill us in on the rest (I think they are involved in royalty smelters), but I think that is an area ES knows quite a bit about.
Oakie 1