Source: Financial Times, 12th January 2011

Suitors are swooning over Canadian commodities. Last year BHP Billiton tried everything to seal a $39bn acquisition of PotashCorp, but was ultimately denied by regulators. Steelmaker ArcelorMittal on Monday extended its C$550m offer for Baffinland Iron Mines for another two weeks to compete with a rival offer from Nunavut Iron Ore. And now, Cliffs Natural Resources, a US-based iron ore and coal miner, is gobbling up Consolidated Thompson Iron Mines, a smaller Canadian rival, for C$4.9bn including net debt.