Yet some mining analysts voice caution.

And Mr. Reed, a 68-year-old retired mining analyst, can't muster much more than a simple, "Because."

Terence Ortslan, an independent mining analyst in Montreal, said that a combination of Alcan and Pechiney made sense.

Falconbridge's Kidd Creek mine is "probably the best base metal mine in all of Canada," said one Canadian mining analyst who asked not to be identified.

"People are clearly expecting someone else to come into the fray now that Inco is not encumbered," said David Davidson, a mining analyst with Paradigm Capital.

Nick Hatch, a mining analyst for Investec Securities, said, "As commodity prices get higher, asset prices get higher."

However, the offer is unlikely to attract blue-chip attention, according to Charles Cooper, a mining analyst at Oriel Securities.

"What we're surmising is that there may have been some cross-sample contamination," said Pierre Vaillencourt, a mining analyst for James Capel of Canada.

In later years, he settled into being a mining analyst in Toronto.

Terence Ortslan, an independent mining analyst based in Montreal, said that the list of potential buyers for Noranda was now "very narrow."