The Financial Post reports in its Tuesday edition that the tussle for control of Sherritt, a Canadian miner with deep ties to Cuba, has drawn in two unlikely players: Citigroup and Office Depot. A Bloomberg dispatch to the Post says that thanks to a Byzantine series of mergers and acquisitions that go back almost a century, both companies hold claims on property seized during Cuba's 1959 revolution and subsequently used by the Toronto-based nickel and cobalt producer. Now, as Sherritt looks for a U.S. backer to help get out from under Donald Trump's punishing sanctions, those long-dormant claims -- now worth more than $350-million (U.S.) on paper -- are taking on new life. "These claims are a veto, not a nuisance," said lawyer Davy Karkason at Transnational Matters PLLC. "If Citi says 'no' nobody gets to have the mine and Sherritt goes back to square one." Sherritt's fate has been up in the air since May, when Mr. Trump issued an executive order designed to chase foreign companies out of Cuba. The Canadian miner initially said it would dissolve its joint ventures on the island, which include a mine and a power-generation operation, only to reverse course when a former adviser to Mr. Trump emerged as a potential saviour.