Cliffs Natural Resources Inc announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the Ring of Fire chromite properties of Montreal based Freewest Resources Canada Inc.

Under the terms of the agreement, Cliffs will acquire Freewest's interests in the Ring of Fire properties, comprising three world-class chromite deposits: 100% of Black Thor and Black Label and 50% of Big Daddy an adjacent deposit held by a joint venture of Freewest, KWG Resources and Spider Resources. Freewest's other assets will be spun off into a new Freewest. Following this spin-off transaction, the new Freewest would exist independently and its common stock would continue to trade on the TSX Venture Exchange.
On closing, each Freewest shareholder will receive CAD 0.55 per share or CAD118 million in aggregate of consideration in the form of Cliffs Natural Resources common stock. The fraction of a Cliffs share to be issued per Freewest share will be determined based on the volume weighted average price of Cliffs' shares for the five trading days ending on the third trading day before the effective date of the transaction.