Some of the finest minds behind Fortescue's ascent, who went on to set up potash explorer Sirius Minerals, scored an unexpected win when the North York Moors National Park approved an application to build a $US3 billion ($3.88 billion) potash mine within its boundaries.

It is good news for Sirius boss Chris Fraser - who in his Citigroup days helped orchestrate a $2 billion capital financing for Fortescue - and some of the miner's original executive team, Russell Scrimshaw and Chris Catlow.

Scrimshaw is now chairman of Sirius and Catlow is his deputy.

In a 2011 interview with Fairfax Media, the trio - who own more than 12 per cent of Sirius between them - predicted that the company had the potential to emulate Fortescue, which was worth around $20 billion at the time.

"If you've got a couple of million tonnes of [annual] production, it doesn't take much to justify a valuation of $15 billion to $20 billion. If you get 3 million to 5 million tonnes per annum of production, they're the sort of valuations that are now being ascribed to potash companies," said Fraser.

Scrimshaw did caution at the time - rather prophetically - that "there's a lot of water to go under the bridge."

Tuesday's victory went against the run of play after a preliminary report released ahead of Tuesday's meeting said the benefits of the proposal to dig up a couple of billion tonnes of potash would not outweigh the harm it would cause to the national park. It sent the Sirius share price crashing last week.

On Tuesday, a special planning committee of the park voted 8-7 in favour of the development.

Now for the hard bit.

The company has yet to arrange financing of the mine which is expected to cost around £1.5 billion ($3.1 billion) to build.

This includes a 23-mile tunnel to transport the raw material, which is mostly used for fertilisers, to a purpose built export berth at the nearest port.

Twice shy

Speaking of cricket, McAleese boss, Mark Rowsthorn, might be wincing from the crotch-high bouncer that was delivered on Wednesday with the news that a $9 billion takeover bid has been lobbed at his old shop, Asciano.

The four per cent stake he still owned when he left abruptly in 2011 would have rocketed in value to $360 million at the price being offered by the Canucks at Brookfield.

Wouldn't it be great if Rowsthorn held on to his shares, despite being swept out the door by his chairman, Malcolm Broomhead.  It is not considered likely, and Rowsthorn certainly was not in the mood to enlighten CBD.

As reported recently, his shares in Toll would also have come in handy if he had not sold them well before Japan Post bought the logistics group in May.

Rowsthorn's shares, if had not sold them years earlier, would have fetched $270 million.

At least he still has his controlling stake in logistics disaster McAleese which has shed more than 90 per cent of its value since listing 18 months ago.

Total Recall 

The top brass at Recall Holdings are either shoring up support for the upcoming vote on the takeover by US marauder, Iron Mountain, or making the most of a great arbitrage play thanks to the underwhelming market response to the offer.

Small investors will get $8.50 cash per share, so the stock is technically a bargain at around $7, unless you own enough shares to qualify for Iron Mountain's scrip which has tanked in recent months. And that assumes the deal gets shareholder approval.

"We are very comfortable that we have strong Recall shareholder support," Recall chief, Doug Pertz, told Fairfax media after the board backed the sweetened Iron Mountain offer this month.

But there is nothing like a bit more insurance.

Recall chairman Ian Blackburne, and Pertz, decided to move things along a bit buy diving in and buying some shares on-market.

Last week, Blackburne picked up 20,000 shares at $6.89 each, while Pertz added 25,000 shares to his pile of stock at $7.15 each.

And just to make sure other shareholders got the hint, Pertz dived back in on Tuesday, picking up another 40,000 shares at around $6.90 each.

Up in ARMS

Former Leighton boss, Wal King, emerged a little battered, but victorious from a shareholder meeting in London this week for his UK-listed Indonesian coalminer, Asia Resource Minerals (ARM).

The company, headed by another former Leighton boss, Hamish Tyrwhitt, cleared another hurdle to the takeover bid from Indonesian billionaire, Eka Tjipta Widjaja.

A Widjaja controlled ARM might have better luck in ejecting the previous CEO, Amir Sambodo, from the headquarters of the company's main asset in Indonesia, Berau Coal.

He has been in control for weeks, which means ARM has not had a clue as to what's going on for some time now.

Investors overwhelmingly backed the resolution that pushes along the bid from the Widjaja-backed ACE, but they were not so charitable when it came to the AGM. Big protest votes registered against the remuneration report, and the re-election of Wal and Hamish.

CBD is told that most of the vote came from one unhappy party, former ARM chairman, Samin Tan, who is about to lose his shares to financiers in any case.

The man who got Wal into this mess, billionaire Nat Rothschild, is already heading for the exits and it is safe to assume his Leighton boys would be happy to follow if ACE's bid is successful.

Got a tip? ckruger@fairfaxmedia.com.au