selkirk are you familiar with Noront Resouces

[LOR]

Thursday morning thoughts

Good morning. On the Asian major indices, we had another bloodbath overnight, with the Hang Seng in China, down another 2.26% and the Nikkei in Japan down 2.22%. In Japan investor sentiment sank to its lowest level in nearly 5 years, as the economy heads towards recession. Economists in Japan are predicting the economy will remain weak and earliest possible turn around will be 2nd quarter 2009. In Europe the major indices are up sharply as the Central Banks have joined forces and offered to pump billions of dollars into the global money markets to boost liquidity in global financial markets. Banking stocks are leading the bull rally in Europe, as investors think they see the light at the end of the tunnel, in the current global financial crisis. Could this finally be the bottom that until today was no where in sight? On the economic calendar for today we have the Initial Jobless Claims numbers at 8:30am, followed by the Leading Indicators and the Philadelphia Fed numbers at 10am. The early futures numbers are pointing to a very positive opening for the US indices. The early strength in commodity prices should bode well for the Canadian indices today, if they hold and I expect them to. I expect an end to this latest corrective phase and the start of a bull run in the Canadian equity markets. Bottoms have to be found somewhere, hopefully this is it, as usual, when you least expect them to, when gloom and doom are at there peaks. JMHO

Back in McFaulds Lake, yesterday was another down day for NOT as it lost over 4%, on average volume. Yesterday we had a higher low and a lower high, than the previous day, as the stock traded in a narrow range. For today we have support at $1.38 with $1.82 being the resistance point. The pivot point is at $1.60, but we need a close above $2.19 the MA(13), to mark a trend change and get this latest downtrend turned around. It will either take higher base metal prices or good news from NOT to put a halt to the downward slide in it's share price.

Yesterday after the market closed, NOT had a presentation by Neil Novak, in Vancouver, giving investors an update on the exploration activities in McFaulds Lake. So far I have seen no update from anyone who attended this presentation. If any reader of this board attended that meeting, it would be much appreciated, if you could give us a follow up, of how the meeting went and what was discussed. It is my understanding, yesterdays presentation, was a warm up by NOT and they will be doing a European tour starting in Oct, to try and get the story out to investors, of their massive chrome discovery. So far North American investors, apparently don't understand what this world class discovery of chrome is all about, as the market is giving very little valuation, if any, to NOT's current market cap. NOT management has admitted they have done a very poor job, so far, of selling this story to investors. Up to this point, the story of NOT has been all about nickel. Still to this day, NOT's drilling programs, for the most part, have been focused on finding further pods of mineralization, with a bias towards finding more nickel. I have always thought that NOT's downfall, was getting the kinds of assay values they did at Eagle One. With some of the richest assay values every found at Eagle One, it is hard to repeat, finding another pod of mineralization, anything remotely close to the original discovery. No one said living up to your past successes was easy, just ask NOT management. Once you have raised the bar so high, as NOT did with Eagle One, all else fails in comparison. One glaring fact is obvious, as more pods of nickel mineralization are discovered in McFaulds Lake, Eagle One type of assay values, have very little chance of ever being repeated. I think you will find, the reason for NOT to take a drill back to Eagle One, is to not only try and add tonnage to this discovery, but also to come up with the kinds of assay values, that get investors excited again. JMHO

A story that has all but been forgotten is the Windfall project in Quebec. With the ramp nearing completion, we should be hearing more about this project from NOT. With gold being back in vogue and the kinds of assay values previously announced, perhaps this story will bring some attention to NOT's share price. However since Windfall is not part of the McFaulds Lake story, I won't go into further details about this project.

To see just how out of vogue the chrome story is to investors, we need not look any further than to FWR. FWR reported a 100M intercept of chrome and the market yawned. In fact since reporting visuals of this chrome discovery, FWR's share price has gone down. We have heard FWR isn't drilling at this 100% owned anomoly to discover chrome, they already know it exists and where to find it. This current drill program is all about finding nickle and further drilling will concentrate solely on this endeavor. The VTEM surveys are showing this anomoly to be one of the best chances in McFaulds Lake to indeed have a good chance of success in making another nickel discovery. I'm certainly far from being a geologist or pretend to have much knowledge in this field, however, from all reports this anomoly looks to have many of the same characteristics as NOT's Eagle One discovery. If FWR can come up with anything remotely close to the kinds of assay values that Eagle One reported, we should be hearing a lot more from the story of FWR.

One of the problems with FWR currently is the huge overhang of free trading paper from 2 of their past PP's. One of the past PP's was done at $.30 and the other at $.35, in total there is 15.5 million shares that will need to be chewed through to get the share structure cleaned up on this stock. Many investors I have talked to, think many of these PP shares are in strong hands so they won't need to be dealt with. Here again lies a problem, as with many PP's, investors also receive warrants attached to the PP's. So those that hold these PP shares have the option of selling their shares when they are in a profitable situation and sitting back with unexercised wts. They can then afford to sit back and wait to see if FWR's share price goes higher. If it does they can exercise their wts and make further profits on the stock. Essentially these investors would get a free ride to see if FWR comes up with something of significance in their drill programs. So, yes indeed FWR will need to chew through these PP shares, to clean up the share structure. Obviously if FWR does hit something of significance, chewing through 15.5 million shares is not a huge hurdle, but it is a hurdle that investors need to be aware of. JMHO

The bloodletting finally stopped in FNC's share price yesterday, as the stock halted it's recent downward slide and closed even for the day. Currently investors are waiting to hear more about the PP that FNC supposedly has in the works. Obviously this must be a bought deal financing, or we would of heard about this PP in the form of a news letter by now. What we do know from the FNC story, is only what has been reported back from investors who have taken the time to phone Peter Smith. Here is a recap from the latest I have been told. Supposedly FNC has finished Hole #4 and the core samples from this drilling program, have been sent to the lab, so we have assays pending. The drilling crew and operator have been retained and they are now drilling on Hole #5, supposedly FNC had enough money in their treasury to keep going to this point. Presently FNC is putting together a bought deal financing, so drilling will continue even after Hole #5 is completed. The plan is to punch a few more holes into C-1, then the drilling crew will move on to test a few other anomolies. When asked, Peter Smith reportedly stated, this next drilling program will not be looking for chrome, he already is very certain that chrome exists on the property. This next drilling program, is all about looking for nickel and Smith is very determined to prove that nickel exists on this property. There you have it, this is all I know about this story, from the few contacts that I have talked with.

I have noticed NRN's share price has been under selling pressure the last couple of days on above average volume. Of course what junior mining stock hasn't been under selling pressure, the last couple of days. The NRN story is not one that I follow closely, but I do know a few regular readers of this board are watching this play closely. If we could get an update from the readers that have much more knowledge than I do about NRN's drilling program, it would be much appreciated.

The MTX/WSR story has certainly faded fast from investors radar screens. Personally I thought the assays they reported were very good, however with zinc being out of vogue with investors currently and a weak market environment in general from junior mining stocks, its easy to see why these stocks have been under selling pressure. The long delays that WSR had before delivering their last set of assays has come full circle and bite this stock in the arse. Yes, they have a drilling program underway currently, but with such long delays in reporting their last assays, many investors are now shunning this story because of it. Hopefully other companies that drill in McFaulds Lake, learn from the mistake these companies made with their delay tactics. Once investors take issue with how a company treats them, they think twice before becoming involved with them in the future. I never did buy into these stocks, but I have heard from investors that did, they will no longer play these stocks anytime soon. Sad reality for MTX/WSR, now it will take knock your socks off assays, before many will give them a second look. With the current sad state of the junior resource markets, some of these smaller two-bit mining stocks in McFaulds Lake need every investor they can get, chasing them away needlessly is a huge mistake. JMHO

Once again I would like to remind the readers of this board, if they would like to see what the TradingChief site is all about, send me a PM and I will try and arrange for you to get a free trial, to give it a closer look. I say this with all sincerity, this site was built by an investor, for investors and I know of no other site like it, where you can get such top notch advice on how to protect your investing dollars. I pay $20 a month for all the bells and whistles you could ever imagine to help me with making my investment decisions, it is by far the best $20 a month I have ever spent. This site makes zero dollars on the monthly fees, every cent is turned back into creating more tools for the members. There are three main chat rooms where investors meet on a daily basis, during market hours. Current market trends are discussed and DD is shared by the investors that go there. You just can't find this kind of value and shared information, anywhere else that I know of. The 3 chat rooms are, LargeCap Daytrader, SmallCap Daytrader and the one were I mainly hang out at, the LongTerm Investor room. Take the plunge, it will be one of the wisest investment decisions you ever make. JMHO

Best of luck to all McFaulds Lake investors.




Al

 

[LOR]

This Sector's Already Rebounding from the Shock
By Greg McCoach | Thursday, September 18th, 2008


Dear reader,

They told us everything was going to be OK.

They told us the finance industry was still healthy. And they told us that the equity markets were just fine and dandy... that our 401Ks were safe... and that we shouldn't be worried about keeping our money in the banks.

At best, they were stupid. At worst, they lied.

In the past 12 months alone, the losses in equity value from Bear Stearns, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, and Lehman Brothers total approximately $200 billion.

That's $200,000,000,000 completely erased from existence. Gone. Disappeared.

The fallout from these losses has been nothing less than catastrophic to those investors who bought into the propaganda spewed from the retched lips of Henry Paulson, Ben Bernanke, Chris Cox, Walter Lukken, Ed Lazear, and other prevaricators who tried so desperately to pacify the public.



Fannnie, Freddie and Lehman Brothers are now dead in the water, while Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch and "too-big-to-fail" AIG got lucky bailouts.

The next bank to fail is anyone's guess. But make no mistake about it, there will be more. And there will be even more losses in the equity markets. Billions more will be lost.

Meanwhile...

We Just Endured the 6th-Worst Day in Stock Market History...


Investor portfolios and retirement nest eggs across the board are now showing tremendous losses, causing even greater worry and concern for the US financial markets.

The latest cause seems to be more than just hedge fund selling... and is most likely attributed to the massive group of smaller, less-experienced investors who are starting to panic and bail. Others who simply need cash are opting for the exit now instead of waiting for what may lie ahead.

Collectively, we're frantically searching for ways to preserve and protect our wealth.

But the truly smart and nimble know there's money to be made in any economic environment, even in this volatile one.

After all, crisis equals opportunity.

And Suddenly, Gold Mining Stocks Are Beginning To Shine Again...
Yes, the markets are reeling, and they want to go even lower.

But I couldn't be more optimistic.

That's right... The markets are dropping like a lead zeppelin, and I'm thrilled.

Why? Well, I know full well that once the markets bottom out, one little-known sector will emerge as the buying opportunity of the decade.

And this tiny market will bring new wealth to scores of individual investors who invest in the right companies.

I'm talking about the junior mineral markets... specifically, the tiny mining companies proven to return explosive double and triple returns... in short order.

Here's What I Mean By That...
The major exchange for listed junior mineral exploration companies is the TSX Venture Exchange. As a result of the recent financial calamity in the US, the exchange has already given back over 50% since its high set last summer... and is now at levels not seen since August 2004.



Fact is, numerous junior mineral companies have already seen their market valuations largely erased, despite the millions of dollars they may have invested in exploration and discovery programs. And right now many junior exploration stocks are quietly sitting at bargain basement prices.

There's simply never been a better time to be vested in junior mineral stocks. The sub-prime meltdown, the housing market crashand the catastrophic decline of the dollar have enabled this tremendous profit opportunity.

But it's nothing new for the Mining Speculator advisory.

The Mining Speculator Portfolio: An Average Gain of 212% Over 5 Straight Years

And it's about to get even better... especially with gold up an astounding $88 on this very day I'm writing you. (In fact, I predicted--before a large crowd at the most recent New Orleans Investment Conference--that gold would soon spike a full $100 within a single day. Right now we're almost there!)

You see, we are literally on the cusp of a breakout run in junior mining stocks. And it's not uncommon for junior mining companies to experience huge gains (tenfold or more) very quickly as news of a discovery leaks out.

On top of that, the evolving bull market in precious metals not only focuses more attention on the sector, but also causes even more money to be spent on exploration. And the payback for a new find increases exponentially.

Listen, I've been on the front lines of the precious metals markets for the better part of the last decade. When I first began making investment recommendations in the mining sector, few people were listening.

And yet, those early clients who did listen have made tremendous returns. They bought when the news concerning the mining sector was negative. Even now, few are paying any attention to the mining sector and are still being lured by the Wall Street hype and disinformation to invest in blue chips and the general stock market.

That's why now, more than ever, I'm recommending every investor have some exposure in junior mineral stocks.

 

[LOR]

Noront's Corporate Presentation yesterday in Vancouver...
Posted by: snezzer on September 18, 2008 04:15PM

Hey everybody. I made it to Noront?s presentation at the Vancouver Terminal City Club Tower yesterday afternoon. Wow... I was out of place there. Shorts, sandals, polo shirt. There was one other guy there in jeans. But everyone else had a suit and jacket. The guy sitting next to me asked me how I got into the room dressed like that, because he was told there was a dress code. I just laughed and told him that I didn?t really care. My money is as good as anybody else?s. We were given a bag filled with: a map of Mcfaulds, a Bold Ventures Inc info sheet, a copy of the Resource World magazine with Nemis/Harvey on the front, and an updated (Sept 08) booklet of the Noront ?Poised for Growth and Increasing Shareholder Value? ? which has been on Noront?s website for awhile. Not sure if the one on the website is the September version or not. Anyway this is what Feeney followed during his presentation.

I brought my laptop and typed some things as I heard them. Kevin Feeney, CFO was the presenter. Neil Novak was there, but didn?t get up and speak. He just interjected from time to time. Michael White from IBK was also there.

Obviously there isn?t really anything NEW in this presentation. So, most or all of what I tell you is old news. But I was happy to go and was encouraged by almost everything... mostly by the chromite aspect of Noront?s finds. There is one concern that I have... but I will get to that.

If my notes below are a bit disjointed I apologize in advance.

First of all... AT12 ? they continue to drill it.... potential to be another major ni-cu-pge find. Have not given up. The overburden is thick there and causes difficulty in drilling.

E1 ? 43-101 doesn?t include the lower grade nickel in the surrounding periodite. So, more like 5 million tons in total. But THAT?s IT. It is not getting bigger. It is defined. But they are exploring the conduit to the south to find more pools. This sounded very encouraging. But I always thought that E1 had the potential to be bigger. Apparently not. But, they have a theory that the conduit open to the south will lead them to other pools of ni-cu-pges. I realize that what i have just written is the worst possible explanation of what is going on (from a geological standpoint) but dem's da way she's in my head. And dem's da way she pours out.

E2 ? way bigger than E1? but with smaller grades of nickel.

Will cost about 750million to get E1 out of the ground ? to earn about 2 billiondollars. - Scoping study being done right now by P&E for a formal 3rd party estimate on costs to get the minerals out of the ground at E1 by itself.

Now onto the Chromite!!! This definitely was the thrust of the presentation... trying to get people to realize how freaking amazing of a find the chromite is!!! But they did mention that despite the hugeness of the Chromite find.... they continue to persist in drilling for NI-Cu-PGEs because they believe there is more there.

BB1 ? ranging from 20m to 70m widths. Think true widths of 30m. Not official yet, of course. But fairly simple shape, unlike E1, which was very irregular. ALL of this chromite is ?hard, lump? constistency. Compared to other mines in the world... this IS world class grade and type. Only size remaining to be shown officially. But they THINK they?ve got LOTS. And they mentioned FWR?s chromite visuals and SPQ/FWR/KWG?s chromite find as well as theorized that this all may connect. And then Neil added that 'Remember, this is just a 20km range we're tlaking about here. The entire Ring is 400km long. So..." I?m 95% positive he said that ?NEW ASSAYS WILL COME OUT NEXT WEEK.? But I don?t know if that means that a NR will also come out. He emphasized that as they go deeper... grades are getting better. He emphasized this to me in person as well. Feeney sounds very excited about this chromite.


This was a big point for me: Within 48hrs of releasing results.. all majors from around the world were knocking on the door thinking that NOT did not know what they were talking about ? that they?d made a mistake. The grades and widths were so high that they honestly thought Noront?s numbers were an error. They said... ?At 30%+ grades call us when you have 30-40 million tons?. So clearly the producers are interested. Funny, because when BB news was released... SP went DOWN! N America doesn?t get it. This seemed to be a big thrust of Feeney?s presentation... the fact that the chromite is fantastic and yet, somehow the North American market reeeeally just doesn?t understand it. Including instutional investors. Nobody knows about chromite. I have a feeling us Agoracom users know more about chromite than MANY institutional investors, and even industry analysts, etc.
Apparently they will be going to Europe to do some IR later in the year where Chromite IS understood. He mentioned looking forward to presenting their case at an International Conference of Chromite Producers in December. I think I got that right.

No assays on Blackbird 2 yet.... but visuals suggest identical grades to BB1. BB2 to be drilled out in 100m steps. BB1 is in excess of 10million tons already, they believe. BB2 is twice the signature size. This doesn?t necessarily mean that it is twice as large though. But they think it could be very large. Are they connected??? That is the magic question. After stepping out drill holes on BB2 to determine a rough size ? they will go back and drill between BB1 and BB2. Our find is similar to Kemi (26%)in geology, which is like ?11 sausage links?, but we have higher grades (40%).

IMPORTANT: Not interested in finishing 43-101 yet... majors will not be predators until they have certainty, according to Kevin. This was encouraging to me. So, Noront is interested in figuring out what the extent of their mineralization is on their properties by doing their own estimates through step-out drilling. Feeney said, "Majors WANT/NEED a 43-101. Only 14 holes done on BB1. Need 40 holes done to do a formal 43-101. Per body. Loooong road." (the quote isn't exact, but close to exact). Ideal scenario according to Feeney: put drill holes in 5 or 6 Chromite bodies so a major comes along and looks are the rough date and assays and finally believes and says ?OK... even without the 43-101 we get it ? you?ve got a lot of chromite. so let?s partner up.? Then we could borrow 100-200million to prove up resource while continually look for NI-Cu-PGE resources on the way.

Would consider a ?Chromite Consortium? with FWR, SPQ, etc.... to make the Chromite find more ?buyable? to a major. This was only briefly mentioned. Didn't ask him about it after. I wish I had.

Spot/contract prices for ferrochrome expected to go above $3 in 2009... Feeney actually said this: ?Imagine if I was here telling you right now that we had hit 40% copper over impressive widths!? Honestly.. people DO NOT GET IT!

Spoke a lot about current world chromite producers. You can read up on that. But basically the jist was that in Canada, near Thunder Bay, we have good cheap energy, good grades, size?, skilled labour (from many layoffs in industry sector).

Road costs... someone asked how much this would cost. He gave some general answers... I can?t remember exactly. Sorry. but no scoping study done yet. Doing their own study but can?t release numbers yet. They just want to get handle on it themselves. I THINK I heard neil say they were going to do a formal scoping study (third party) in October. But they are confident that the road costs/railroad costs will be ?worth it? in light of what the potential financial gains. We, on this forum, are also confident in that. Have been for awhile.

OK... now onto Noront?s financial situation. This is where my concern lies. We have 40million in the bank. Plus 4 million worth of warrants (at .75) that PROBABLY will be exercised before Christmas. If they are... that gives us 44million in the coffers. Roughly 11 months, according to Feeney.

This was the concern of most investors in the room, IMO ? running out of money and having to do financing at such a low share price. Feeney explained that he does NOT want to go to market in these conditions. Of course he said that. He would be an idiot otherwise. No surprise there. He is considering doing a flow-through so that he doesn?t have to use hard cash for exploration. But he is just considering it right now ? he is unsure about doing that in these markets. (I do not understand what a flow-through really is... perhaps someone else on the forum can enlighten us.)

So, Feeney is hoping (as many of us have expected) to get more money from other properties. Windfall was discusse briefly, but only as a cash cow. Feeney said that 'Windfall is NOT a strategic property.' They will either Spin it off or JV it out. Our Tungsten JV ? Cadillac is currently in talks with producer... so, we look forward to getting our money out of that. No timeline was given. Possible to get some money out of Mexico properties. A GOOD looking Gold property in China. It is clear that Feeney is on a mission to get money ANY OTHER WAY than by going to the market in these difficult times. It makes me wonder if Windfall may get sold off at much less than what some of us longs originally expected. The goal now is obviously to deal with the highest financial gain potential. And that is the ROF, according to Feeney. Not Windfall. He said to me that "to Gold Bugs and Gold expliorers Windfall is veeery exciting, but strictly from a financial gain standpoint... ROF is a better place to be putting their money."

So... it seems that the plan is the get money out of Windfall to use at Mcfaulds. I don't know exactly how that will look. Within the next 2 months they should be at the place where they are analyzing all of the material they removed from Windfall zones. Then they can get a grip on the average grades of gold throughout so that we can either sell it or JV or whatever. JUST like many of our posters here have been suggesting for months.

OK... that?s it. I?m holding long and strong to my NOT shares. I may have overextended myself on my credit line...which means that in a few months I may have to sell a small amount of shares at a loss. That would suck ? but would be 100% my fault. C?est la vie. That?s life. Es la vida. Hopefully our sp is back where it belongs before that happens, right?

If you have any questions for me... please feel free to ask. I do not have much more information from the meeting. Didn?t stay too long after. Didn?t speak to Neil. There were several people talking with him. And I had to get home.

Cheers to all,

~snezzer (That?s 2 Zs. Only 1 E).

 

[LOR]

Chromium: More Than Fancy Trim
by: Hard Assets Investor posted on: September 18, 2008 | about stocks: CMC / GNA / IDSA / MEA / SCHN / SMS / TATLY.PK / XSRAF.PK Font Size: PrintEmail By Tom Vulcan

Some things have not changed over the last couple of hundred years.

If you've got a classic motorbike, say, a Harley-Davidson, you can be sure it'll have some pretty spiffy chrome plating on it, whether it's on the pipes, front forks or handlebars. And then there are the myriad different wheels you can get for your motor. They'll very likely have chrome on them somewhere.

Well, back in the late 18th century, if you really loved your landau, brougham or personal fly (all horse-drawn carriages) and wanted to cut a dashing figure, you too would have used plenty of chrome. Not in the form of plating, but in the form of a bright yellow paint with which to adorn your conveyance. Hence the paint pigment's name - chrome yellow. (And the horrid pun in the title of Aldous Huxley's first novel - "Crome Yellow"!)

If, on the other hand, you like your little sparklers, it is just the tiniest trace of the metal that makes rubies red and emeralds a serpentine green.

A Bit Of Background

While chromium may not be as newly discovered an element as rhenium, it was only formally "discovered" and named in 1797 by one Nicolas-Louis Vauquelin, a professor of chemistry and assaying at the renowned School of Mines in Paris. Appropriately, he named it chromium after the Greek work for color - χρώμα (chrōma).

First dug out of mines on the eastern slopes of the Ural Mountains in Siberia, deposits of chromite (from which chromium is extracted) were also discovered on the Maryland/Pennsylvania border in 1827, and for some years the U.S. became a monopoly supplier.

Following the exhaustion of these deposits in 1860, Turkey became the world's main supplier of chromite for many years, until chromium ore started to be mined seriously in India and southern Africa. South Africa remains the world's largest producer of chromite ore and concentrates, followed by Kazakhstan and India. Together they account for around 80% of the world's production of chromite ore.

Not Just Fancy Trim

In the mid-19th century, in addition to being used for paint pigment, chromium compounds started to be used in the dyeing industry. Later in the century, this was followed by use both in the leather tanning industry and as a refractory (a substance resistant to both heat and corrosion).

Although the first patent for its use in steel was granted as early as 1865, only after there had been some major advances in furnace and smelting technology in the early 20th century did the use of chromium in steel really take off. With the invention of various stainless steels (steels containing more than 10% chromium, with or without other alloying elements) in the second decade of the 20th century, chromium can truly be said to have come of age.

As an alloying compound, adding chromium can endow the resulting new compound with:

Color
Hardness
Hygiene
Permanence
Strength
Resistance to:
Corrosion
Decay
Temperature
Wear
The vast majority of its current uses are metallurgical, predominantly in steels and superalloys.




Source: ICDA

Its industrial uses and intermediate products include:

Refractory Chemical
Metallurgical
Foundry Sands

Cement kiln
Chromium plating
Ferrous alloys

Fiberglass furnace
Corrosion control
- Cast iron

Glass-tank regenerator
Metal finishing
- Steel

Steel industry
Pigments
Alloy

Other
Tanning compounds
Stainless

Other
Non-ferrous alloys

- Aluminum

- Copper

- Nickel

- Other


Source: USGS

Used in the following industries...
...chromium is commonly to be found in:

Agriculture
Aircraft

Chemicals
Motorcars

Construction
Barrels

Containers
Buses

Equipment
Cans

Forestry
Electrical appliances

Glass
Flatware

Manufacturing
Hardware

Military
Lumber

Mining
Pharmaceuticals

Oil & gas exploration
Pigments & dyes

Printing
Railroad equipment

Transportation
Ships


Source: USGS

In addition, two of its strategic military uses are as an essential alloy both in gas turbine (i.e., jet engine) blades and armor plating - Krupp, the German armaments manufacturer, started using chromium in its proprietary armor plating as early as 1893.

A brief glance at the chromium content of just some of the major gas turbine superalloys demonstrates how important it is in the manufacture of jet engines.

Superalloy
Chromium (% of weight)

Hastelloy-X?
22

WI-52?
21

Waspaloy?
20

IN-718?
19

Stainless Steels
17-25

Udimet-700?
15


Source: The National Academies Press

Chromium Supply
Chromium metal is extracted from chromite ore, deposits of which were created when magma (molten rock) broke through the earth's crust. While the world's major chromite deposits - all in the Eastern Hemisphere - are in India, Kazakhstan and South Africa, there are significant deposits in the Western hemisphere, in, namely, Brazil and Cuba. All these countries (except Cuba) also mine the ore.

The World's Chromite-Producing Regions



Source: ICDA




Source: ICDA

The U.S. Geological Survey [USGS] estimates that world resources exceed 12 billion metric tonnes of shipping-grade chromite, with 95% of these concentrated in Kazakhstan and southern Africa.

According to the USGS, however, there is, at present, but a single company mining chromite ore in the U.S. (from an ore deposit near Coos Bay in Oregon).

In recent press reports, Oregon Resources Corporation (a wholly owned subsidiary of Australian company Industrial Minerals Corporation Ltd (Bloomberg Ticker - IDM:AU), hopes to mine some 700,000 tons of mineral a year. And, on June 20 this year, the Australian parent announced not only that some "probable" reserves were now "proved," but also that some previous reserve figures had been revised upward. A close look at IDM:AU could be rewarding.

Chromium Demand
Over 90% of mined chromite ore is converted to ferrochromium - an alloy produced in an electric furnace using chromite, iron or iron ore and carbon - which is then used either to make chromium metal or to introduce the metal into alloys, particularly stainless steel, with stainless steel probably using around 80% of the chromite so converted.

The world's major pure chromium metal producers include China, France, Russia, the U.K. and the U.S.

Japan remains by far the world's largest average annual producer of stainless steel, followed by the U.S., China, Korea, Germany, Italy, Taiwan and India. Preliminary figures for global stainless steel production in 2007 stood at some 27.84 million metric tonnes.




Source: International Stainless Steel Forum (ISSF)

Historically the ferrochromium market has been quite cyclical. Over the past several years, this has led to the increased production of chromite by vertically integrated producers, i.e., chromite mines that also own and operate chromium chemical, ferrochromium and chromite refractory producers. With the exception of China, now both a major ferrochromium and stainless steel producer, ferrochromium production has tended to move from the stainless-steel-producing countries to the chromite-ore-producing countries.

With both its rapid economic growth and the expansion of its stainless steel industry, China is now the world's largest annual average consumer of chromium. Indeed, the USGS noted in its 2008 mineral commodity summary for chromium: "Chinese stainless steel production exceeded that of the United States beginning in 2004 and by 2007 was 142% greater than that of the United States."

The Current Market Situation
The price of ferrochromium reached historical levels in 2007, not least because of China's growing demand as a consumer.

According to Xstrata, the world's largest ferrochromium producer, increased stainless steel production in the first half of 2008, compared with the second half of 2007, together with reduced South African ferrochromium production because of the country's well-publicized power constraints, have forced ferrochromium prices even higher. During the first six months of 2008, the average price (Metal Bulletin) of ferrochromium was 156.5?/lb, up some 97% from 79.4?/lb for the same period last year.

Despite continuing weak stainless steel production in the U.S. and a slowing in rate of growth of stainless steel production in China, an estimated global production for stainless steel of 15.3 million metric tonnes during the first half of this year (down 1% in the comparable period last year) is still up 16% on the second half of 2007.

While third-quarter stainless steel production is expected to slow, the market is expected to strengthen in the fourth quarter. Forecasts indicate a figure of over 29 million metric tonnes for stainless steel production for the whole of 2008, and production increases possibly up 6% on 2007. The ISSF forecasts demand for all stainless steel products rising through 2009.

All Stainless Products - Global Stainless Steel Demand Index



Source: ISSF

The price of pure chromium metal, too, has soared, not least because of continuing strong demand for fuel-efficient engines and its continuing heavy use in the manufacture of pumps and corrosion-resistant pipes for the oil industry (see Rhenium: Son Of Moly).

In June this year, the Financial Times ran a story noting that the price of the metal that month had already hit "a record of US$11,000 per tonne, up from about US$6,800 last year and less than US$4,000 in 2000." Currently (end-August), the pure metal is trading in the US$13,500-13,800 per metric tonne price range.

Chromium, and chromium compounds, are not traded on any public exchange and, consequently, prices are not that easy to find. Indicative prices are obtained by trade journals (Metal Bulletin, Platts, etc.) that report composite prices based on interviews with buyers and sellers.

Riding the Chromium Wave
Are there any realistic opportunities to ride the chromium wave? Perhaps.

While some chromium compounds (particularly hexavalent compounds of the metal) are unpleasantly toxic, chromium metal itself is relatively nontoxic. (In fact, we need chromium as a trace mineral, amongst other things, to prevent glucose intolerance. So, carry on eating those mushrooms, broccoli and wheat germ!)

For the more intrepid investor, owning the physical metal could, therefore, be a possibility. But, as with many of the minor/strategic metals, there will always be the issues associated with the metal not being traded on a public exchange, the liquidity of your holding, storage, how and where you sell it, etc.

On the other hand, two of the largest ferrochromium producers in the world are publicly quoted. For both, however, ferrochromium production is just one of many business activities. This is certainly the case for Xstrata (XSRAF.PK), not only the world's largest ferrochromium producer, but also one of the world's largest mining companies.

While Xstrata's ferrochromium production is based in South Africa, should continuing power supply problems in the country constitute too much of an issue for you, Eurasian Natural Resources Corp [LON:ENRC], out of Kazakhstan, provides not only exposure to ferrochromium as the world's second-largest producer, but also exposure to both traded alumina and iron ore as, respectively, the world's fifth-largest producer and sixth-largest exporter. The company recently reported a 170% rise in profits for first-half 2008, with 65.5% of profits being accounted for by strong ferro-alloy prices.

Back in South Africa, Samancor and Hernic Ferrochrome (the world's third- and fourth-largest ferrochromium producers), while being pure-plays, are privately owned. And Assmang, the world's fifth-largest ferrochrome producer, delisted itself, unfortunately, from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in February 2006.

If a Chinese angle looks interesting, then just under a year ago, China's Minmetals Development Co, state-owned China Minmetals Group's Shanghai-listed arm, bought in SA Chrome. And Tata Steel (TATLY.PK) now has a ferrochrome production facility in Richards Bay, South Africa.

When looking at ferrochromium production, it is, however, worth bearing in mind the very diplomatic words of the USGS: "The major producers of chromite and ferrochromium are politically and economically dynamic nations." Country risk is a significant issue. (In this regard, en passant, Zimbabwe is also a large ferrochromium producer.)

Since chromium is, though, primarily a stainless steel play, thinking laterally reveals, once again, that interesting investment possibility: scrap.

The U.S. currently produces only a small amount of ferrochromium. Indeed, as a percentage of apparent consumption, in 2007, the country had a 62% net reliance on imports: predominantly from South Africa and Kazakhstan. On the other hand, according to the USGS, some 38% of apparent consumption last year was accounted for by recycled chromium. As the price of chromium and ferrochromium, and the cost of importing ferrochromium continue to rise, so, too, will recycling stainless steel scrap become ever more attractive (see Thank Scrap: The Market For Recycled Metals).

While I am not currently aware of any publicly quoted companies in the U.S. involved uniquely in recycling stainless steel, there are a number of such companies involved in recycling stainless steel amongst other metals. Each week the ISRI publishes its Friday Report, with a section at the back titled "ISRI's Eye on Equities" covering companies involved in recycling.

Publicly quoted U.S. companies involved in metal recycling include Commercial Metals Company (CMC), Gerdau Ameristeel (GNA): Industrial Services of America (IDSA) - quite a pure recycling play; Metalico (MEA) - a major recycler as well as fabricator ; and Schnitzler Steel Industries (SCHN) - another major recycler.

And, recently, the Australian company Sims Metal Management Group, part of Sims Group (SMS) - the world's and North America's largest metal and electronics recycler - bought Metal Management, previously itself one of the largest publicly quoted U.S. metal recycling companies.


Conclusion

As long as we have stainless steel, we will need chromium. There is no substitute. The same is currently true for super-alloys. But, while there may be no substitute for chromium, stainless steel scrap can be substituted for ferrochromium. Once again, scrap looks like the way to go!

 

[LOR]

Posted by: From_Sudbury on September 18, 2008 07:07PM

In response to: Re: Noront's Corporate Pres... by mark555

A few thoughts....and concerns

First, I keep hearing on here (agoracom) about how nobody understands the chromite....suggestions that perhaps some on here understand it better than the analysts and miners out there...given that the share price has went nowhere but down since the focus has changed to chrome tells me otherwise...

Next...it seems that although feedback suggests that management is very very excited about the chromite, they continue to seek out Ni/Cu/Pge...I'm getting mixed messages

My conclusion on this point....

It seems that although there is some value in mining chromite, that some other factor lowers it's value to the market (perhaps the cost to mine is extremely high or something....not sure what, but there is something)

Next.....the comments with regards to E1 were .....well disturbing to me.....I'm sure I'm not the only one surprised with the idea that this is it for the E1 deposit......the latest presentation suggested further investment for E1...was that just for a scoping study???? And this line in the last news release..."while the third drill has been moved to continue the depth and strike extension potential south of the Eagle One Magmatic Massive Sulphide Deposit" and this line...."The current drilling program at Eagle One South is designed to test for additional resources along strike and to depth towards the south"

Next.....at a time when gold seems set to take off, I was shifting some of my hope towards Windfall.....I still remember a presentation video about a year ago when Richard seemed quite excited about tunnelling down to hole 100 and talked about a room full of 52oz/ton of gold...I believe he suggested that one area alone would pay the whole cost of that project....am I misunderstanding this or is Windfall being played down now....that was my impression anyways

Next....talk of funding.....and flow through shares.....dillution is dillution....we are a long time away yet from even talking about a PP....so why do people keep bringing that up....talk is we have 40 mil with a burn rate of 4 mil/mth.....so about 10 months....will we not be generating some $$ from Windfall by then???? As mentioned above, could we not expect an amount equal to the cost of the project within the next few months?.....or, am I being too optimistic?

Next.....that last news release....dropped onto us less than an hour before close....no time to digest the news...and quite frankly, once I did get a chance to digest it, well, it didn't seem very good...all that time we waited for what....

Since May 27....we get assay results from 1 hole from AT-12...4 holes with not very much and six holes with lost cores....yet, we continue to drill??????Then eagle 2....results from 2 holes and 2 nothings and news that we stopped drilling there....so eagle one and BB1 are not worth further drilling?????....then one hole for AT-3 which was hardly worth mentioning....then two results from AT-4...one meter of gold....wow....so in total....since May 27....results on 6 holes....and on a day our share price was starting to show a little bit of strength due to the FWR release....what is up with that????????

Maybe these long delays in getting news out....along with not so good news when it does arive....and now talk that eagle 1 is at an end....and then talk of a PP....maybe these things are all related some how? I am hoping NOT

 

[LOR]

Friday morning thoughts from TC

Good morning. Wow !!! Looking at the major Asian indices we have the Hang Seng in China up 9.16% and the Nikkei in Japan up 3.76% this morning. Share prices are soaring on the news that the US government is working on a plan to address systemic risks in U.S. markets and deal with problem assets of financial firms. In Europe the major indices are up this morning from a low of 4.6% in the German DAX to around 9% in the FTSE in England. In England they have imposed a four-month ban on short selling of financial stocks, and a source briefed on the matter said the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was considering a temporary ban on short sales of some, or all, stocks. On this news, financial stocks are soaring most up in the 10 to 20% range. All you can say is WOW. For today on the economic calendar we have the Initial Jobless Claims at 8:30am, followed by the Leading Indicators and Philadelphia Fed numbers at 10am. The early US futures are pointing to a strong opening for the US indices, with many analysts calling for today to be the biggest up day in the history of the US indices. In Canada we are sure to follow the leadership of the world indices, even the price of gold has turned positive after taking a small hit in overseas markets. All in all, it should be a wild and interesting day, in the North American indices, as we may be seeing one for the history books today.

Back in McFaulds Lake, yesterday was a disappointing day for NOT's share price, as it was down another 3%. The selling pressure continues, as we await an update, as promised, about the chrome discovery in McFaulds Lake. From the chart of NOT we have support today at $1.38 and resistance at the $1.80 level. The chart indicators are showing the stock to be oversold, but without news, there appears to be nothing to turn the stock around anytime soon. Nemis is going to have his permabulls turn on him shortly, if he doesn't do something to stop the slide in his stocks share price. The total lack of communication from Nemis to the market and his shareholders is growing a little thin. Telling your share holders to buy, buy and hold on, the share price will turn around shortly, is a great way to keep your faithful, supporting your share price. However at some point you have to support the shareholders that are supporting you. Food for thought Richard Nemis.

We heard some feedback from NOT's Vancouver road show yesterday. It appears NOT is finally trying to get the word out, about just how important their chrome discovery really is. The good news from Wednesdays meeting is, we should be getting some assay results from the chrome drilling sometime next week. Apparently these assays will come from Blackbird One. Rough calculations are showing Blackbird One to be in excess of 10 million tonnes with world class grades. NOT has produced grades from previous assays in the 40% chromite range. World class grades are in the 30% range. So it is very important to understand NOT's discovery has some of the best grades ever found.

NOT is currently drilling at Blackbird Two, where the visuals are indicating the grades to be identical to Blackbird One. Early indications are showing Blackbird Two's signature to be roughly twice the size of Blackbird One. So this should show us, just how huge these discoveries really are. Already just from these two deposits alone, we are looking at tonnage somewhere in the 30 million tonne range. It was reported at the meeting, that when one of the major's first came to take a look at NOT's chrome discovery, NOT was told to give them a call when they had proved up 30-40 million tonnes. NOT has only hit the tip of the iceberg drilling some of these numerous chrome occurrences and they are already getting close to those kinds of tonnage estimates. Just imagine adding another 5 to 10 of these anomolies to the tonnage estimates. However you slice this, the chrome discovery in McFaulds Lake is a world class discovery. Early indications are pointing to this being the largest discovery, with some of the highest grades, on the planet earth. It is mind boggling when you start putting some dollar valuations on this discovery. All this and North American investors haven't put much, if any, valuation towards NOT's market cap from this chrome discovery yet. I sit here scratching my head.

This is the reason why Nemis needs to get the word out on just what this chrome discovery is all about, not later, but now. The fear is with the current cheap share price of NOT, some major is going to scoop this company up at bargain basement prices. It was noted at Wednesdays meeting, this is the reason why NOT is in no hurry to put a 43-101 valuation on any of their chrome occurrences. The feeling is that to a major, a 43-101 is a necessity. The more I think about it, I'm not so sure about that analogy.

Personally I think we are soon going to see some of these resource stocks, with proven assets in the ground, get swallowed up by the bigs boys shortly. This gets back to the Warren Buffett way of investing, sit back with cash in hand, and buy up the good companies, when their share prices get beaten up, during market turmoil. This is one of the things, that I would hate to see right now. Some of Canada's finest junior resource stocks, get taken over by some of these foreign majors, at a time when their share prices are beaten down, to a fraction of their real worth. JMHO

FNC's share price appears to have stabilized, in fact it was up $.02 yesterday. Just checked on the latest short report ending Sept 15th and yes indeed the shorts have covered. There are currently only 1,500 shorts left on the stock. Over the past two week period 315,542 shorts covered. They certainly made some good money off of FNC, as most of them piled on, when the share price hit its 52 week high, just over the $3 share price level. That surprise halt and needless news release from Peter Smith, certainly played into their game plan. The one fear I had with FNC, is starting to play out, the volume, now that the shorts have covered, has dropped off considerably. I would imagine, we will now see the spread between the bids and the asks open up again, and the volumes traded will just keep dwindling. The only positive is FNC is still drilling, so there is always the possibility, they could hit something of significance. Where there is drilling, there is always hope. It will be interesting to see at what price this PP, that FNC is currently working on, will be done at. From all indications we could/should be getting that announcement today or early next week. To me, finding out which pro groups or insiders, that get a piece of this PP will be of great interest. We should see the participants names on the news release, where the exchange has accepted the PP. Stay tuned, the story from FNC is far from over.

FWR is till having troubles getting its share price moving in the right direction. It was up $.005 yesterday, but for a stock that just reported it had discovered over 100M of chrome on it's 1st drill hole, the market gave them ZERO valuation, for this discovery. Mac Watson had a very informative interview yesterday, well worth the listen, for anyone that missed it. http://tradingchief.com/en/mboard.php?page=read&pid=5983 This interview helps explain the importance of chrome to McFaulds Lake. One important bit of info, I gleamed from listening to the interview, is how these companies currently drilling in McFaulds, seem to know exactly where the chrome is on their properties. Now, what these companies are doing, is trying to find the nickel deposits, that flow off to the sides of this river of chrome. The significance of this is, the chrome deposits are actually being used as a locator, for these nickel deposits. They have now gleamed some very important information about the geology of McFaulds Lake. Now that these companies know where this river of chrome is, they can do VTEM surveys along this river and pinpoint the best locations to drill at. This speeds up the entire drilling process immensely. This cuts out alot of needless drilling for these companies. From Watson's interview yesterday, you can just hear the excitement in his voice, when he talks about the drill targets, on his 100% owned property. The VTEM surveys are showing this property to have some excellent drill targets.

Now that NOT has done such a fantastic job, figuring out the geology of McFaulds Lake, I keep my eyes and ears glued to the TradingChiefNews wire. I have all the companies that are currently drilling in McFaulds Lake set with an alert. For some reason I have this gut feeling, it is only a matter of time before I see the words, "MASSIVE SULPHIDES", scrolling across the news wire. For those readers of this board that don't know this, the TradingChiefNews wire is the best news service available for investors. Often we get the news from 1 minute to 10 minutes before most other news wire sites. The reason is this site subscribes to all the other news wire sites and combines them into one, other than StockWatch(which refuses to sell their feed). This affords the members of TradingChief a huge advantage over most investors. Getting the news first, we can jump into some of these plays minutes before others even receive the news. Getting a jump on the herd equates to extra dollars in ones wallet. JMHO

Best of luck to all McFaulds Lake investors today.




Al

 

[LOR]

Here is a post from AB.

I like it
Posted by: d12 on September 19, 2008 11:42AM

The discussions on this board today and yesterday might very well be the best we have ever had. Many are nervous and looking for answers, myself included. In fact, I may be leading the charge. I am disappointed in the SP to say the least. I have many stocks that are in the red right now, but I hold my NOT to a higher standard. Quite honestly, I haven't even questioned the other 4 stocks that are off 70%+ from their highs. I guess I just thought NOT would weather the storm better, and maybe it should have. I tend to agree with Rosedale, that some things could have been done better. I don't agree with Mr. Feeney revealing our position at the presentation. He sounded worried. Jeez, I could put on a better front then that. In reality though, he might just be leveling with shareholders. Do I agree? No. But, i'm just a guy who sits in Northern Ontario trading stocks all day long. I'm not and never have been opposed to say that I could be wrong. Time will be the truth teller.




So, lets get our concerns out there. I have the same one as Rosedale. Financing and Share price. Many are saying that we have 11 months or so left before we need monies. This is true, but we can't exactly wait until we have $7 in the account before we start looking for cash. This is obvious as Feeney is already talking about it, quite clearly they are thinking about it. What do we do? This is where the concerns come in to play. IMO we have 4 main options:




1. Do a normal PP

advantages:

easy, common way of raising money. Probably many takers at these ridiculous prices.

disadvantages:

massive dilution because of low SP which results in the lining of d12's pockets to be less then desired.




2. Sell Windfall

advantages:

easy again. Probably takers as gold won't be getting any cheaper over the years. No dilution.

disadvantages:

many longs invested in Noront because of this and would like to see it through till the end. Plus it doesn't line d12's pockets as much as he would like.




3. Bulk samples from Windfall

advantages:

great way of raising cash and doesn't cost us anything. No dilution.

disadvantages:

timing could be as such that management isn't confident in this route. might not provide the amount needed within the time frame that we need to properly prove up our resources.




4. Buy-in or JV with a Major for chrome

advantages:

provides cash and probably lots of it. lends huge credibility to the chrome story. north america doesn't get the chrome story. what better way to explain it then by attaching a majors name to it. SP appreciation would follow as we would essentially have pure cash to shore up SP. institutions would be more comfortable buying if a major was on board.

disadvantages:

we would probably have to give someone a decent deal in order for them to jump on board without the resource being fully proven.




There we have it. I am of the belief we should go with #4. The disadvantage IMO is well worth the reward. I think it would instantly provide a solid base for our stock and lend the much needed credibility that investors are looking for. Many were under the impression that we would be much further along at our 1 year anniversary. I don't think we're in a situation where going for broke is the right move. Again, I could be wrong, JMO. I believe a major will provide the necessary spark to get this moving. I think we have failed in the promotion aspect. We all know this is going to be huge, its the path we take to that point I am concerned with. I wouldn't mind a smoother ride




Now, keep in mind these are just my opinions and they could very well be in the works as we speak. We know they can't just announce this sort of thing publicly. On top of this, as I said earlier, I'm just a guy who trades stocks. I would never claim to have near the experience or smarts of the Noront team. I am merely stating my concerns, which I believe will be overcome no matter what path the team chooses. I'm just looking for a bit of relief for shareholders.




In the end its what's in the ground that will ultimately determine our future. This is why I think the decisions we take along the way are to some extent, irrelevant. Obviously there is a limit to this. But we either have it, or we don't. This is something I came to terms with just this morning. What am I really gambling on???? Because I'm a simple guy, I like to keep things simple. Here is what I believe the Noront story boils down to.




We either have $2 billion + of Nickel in the ground or we don't. We either have a world class chrome deposit or we don't.




That's it. In the end that's all that matters. Do we have it, or don't we. Because if we do, majors will eventually want it. If we don't, well then we're all screwed.




So the only thing left is the process in which we get to an eventual buy-out. This is what all LONGS are here for. The light at the end of the tunnel. Right now it seems pretty dim. I personally think management could have done things a little different and made the road less bumpy. However, this may cost us a few bucks when the final buy-out comes. I'm fine with this, some aren't. I believe management is trying as hard as they can to maximize share holder value, I just don't want it to come at a cost of possibly losing some of the very shareholders that supported the company for the past few years. It really comes down to that. Management is looking LONG term, retail is looking SEMI-LONG term. I'm of the SEMI-LONG term gang, because I worry we could get taken over if we stay at these levels. For example, I would rather $20/share soon, rather then $25/share in a few years. Just my personal feeling. I fully respect the other side of the coin though.




Perspective is where we're at. Management always takes the LONG approach, as to maximize the end result. And this i'm sure will happen at some point. Without a doubt, still very BULL on NOT. Just wish they could feed us a little more along the way......even table scraps.




Just my thoughts,

d12

 

[LOR]

Monday morning thoughts from TC

Good morning. The major Asian indices finally came back to reality after Fridays explosive rally. Today We have the Hang Seng in China up 1.58% and the Nikkei in Japan up 1.42%. Asian investors are now waiting for more details on the proposed $700 billion bank bailout by US authorities. In early trading in Europe the major indices are flat as investors come to grips with the realization what is a good deal for the banks in the US, will arguably be a bad one for taxpayers. So just how sustainable the rally in equity markets will be as a result, remains to be seen, as this stands to heap further economic woes on the US market, especially consumers. What is amazing, is how all the major world indices, have enacted the US plan, to ban short selling of financial stocks. This in itself should tell investors the US bailout plan is a done deal. This new plan is being pushed down the throats of American taxpayers rather they like it or not. There is nothing on the economic calendar for today, so all eyes will be on news of the US bailout plan as it unfolds today. The early futures are pointing to a lower open for the US indices. At the time of typing this mornings thoughts, commodity prices are up sharply, so it should/could be a good day for the Canadian indices.

I don't pretend to know all the implications for this US bailout plan, but every article I have read and I have read a few of them, is very negative on this plan. Many are calling it an end to the equity markets as a free market. My thoughts are it was always rigged anyways, with the PPT and the way the Central Banks have the price of gold rigged. Right down to the way the big financial institutions on Wall St, play retail investors as suckers, with the use of the media, to sway investor sentiment. Since everyone is now into the prediction game as to how this new bailout plan will unfold down the road, I thought I would throw my hat into the ring and take a stab as to how I think this entire fiasco will play out.

First of all let me say, they did not have a lot of alternatives, something had to be down before this entire credit mess blew up in our faces and we all ended up in soup lines, in a state of depression instead of recession. I think once this new plan is passed the equity markets will stabilize. The housing bubble will be behind us and for those that can afford it, now is a good time to buy a house, the bottom is most likely now in. Of course the old days of zero money down is long past, now reality sets in and those wishing to buy a house will need a sizeable downpayment to qualify for a mortgage. This is the way it always should of been and this whole mess would of been avoided in the first place. I think this will put a floor in the US equity markets, the bottom has been been reached and the bear can go back into hibernation and the bull comes charging back. The US equity markets, such as the DOW will rally to new highs. The reason being the US Fed has now pumped a tonne of money into the US system and Americans will be awash in cash, much like they were before the Year 2000 fiasco. With all this new cash and interest rates at historic lows, this new money will go right back into the stock market. At first all this new money won't be a problem, but it will cause some inflationary pressure and interest rates down the road will go up. However with such low rates at the present time, it will be a slow process, as the US Fed now has a lot of room for increases, to slow the inflationary pressures. The key will be, can they keep the price of oil low enough, to slow down the inflationary pressures. Many are saying how can this bailout not cause the $US to go down, well the reason I see for the $US to remain strong, is yes, now the American economy may have a fix in place, to avoid a deep recession, but the European economies are in a mess. Unlike the US, they have sat on their hands during this entire credit market meltdown and done nothing to fix their problems. The last one to the dinner table often goes to bed hungry. The $US will remain strong mainly because the alternative, the $Euro will grow much weaker. One of the key reasons, why the US side should be able to slow down the price of oil, will be because of weak demand in Europe. Once again, this is just my take on the situation, and obviously has no basis in fact, it is just my guesstimate at best and could be a totally wrong read.

There, I have thrown a positive possibility into the ring of predictions, instead of all this doom and gloom I have been reading about. My belief is if you only look for negatives in every scenario, you are sealing your fate before you give anything a chance. I know 99% won't agree with my positive scenario, but it is a hell of a lot better better than looking at nothing but negatives, even if it doesn't play out. There enough of playing Nostradamus, back to the reason we are here, McFaulds Lake.

Back in McFaulds Lake, NOT finally had a positive day on Friday after 4 straight down days. On the chart, NOT has support at $1.41 and $1.79 is it's first resistance point. On Friday the chart candlesticks formed a Harami Cross Pattern, which is often a sign of a trend change. If NOT can open at or above it's Friday high of $1.69, or just open at or above it's close at $1.61 and then start doing the slow creep higher, on decent volume, we would get confirmation of the trend change. Hopefully we get that early morning bounce and get this stocks share price righted once and for all, as the chart indicators are showing NOT to be in oversold territory. The brutal sell off in the junior resource stocks the last couple of weeks, has unfortunately meant stocks with strong fundamentals, like NOT, have been sold off hard, right along with their weak sisters. To see the #1 rated mining stock on the TSX-v trading at such depressed share prices, shows you the sad state of the TSX-v exchange currently. I have been reading where some investors are blaming Nemis, or market manipulation, or short sellers, or daytraders, etc, etc, for NOT's current ridiculously low share price. To these types I say open up your eyes and take a look around you, this is nothing more than a very sick market. What is it going to take, to get the junior mining stocks turned around, is a matter of debate, but personally, I believe the TSX-v is very near, or already has bottomed out. Stocks with strong fundamentals like NOT will be the first to get their share prices righted. Also what could give the entire sector a boost, is if we start seeing takeovers from some majors. The stocks that have proven mineable resource discoveries, must be looking very attractive, to some of these cash rich majors, at current market caps. I have read a few resource newsletter writers and many are discounting the value of this chrome discovery in McFaulds. Since there is nothing to compare it to, in North America, they seem very fearful, of putting a valuation on it. Perhaps I am missing something, but if you have X amount of tonnes, of any ore that has value in the billions of dollar range, I really don't understand their concerns. It appears in North America, it is all about nickel or gold, anything else and the newsletter writers don't appear to be able to get their mindsets into it. My belief is that is about to change shortly and we are going to see a major, take a run at NOT. I'm not sure if it will be in whole or in part, but the writing is on the wall. NOT just has too many dollars worth of proven ore, for the share price to remain at these mind boggling low levels. JMHO

FWR's recent discovery of 100M section of chrome has certainly left investors scratching their heads. Since the announcement of this discovery on their very first drill hole, the share price has gone down. This obviously should show us a very important fact, North American investors could careless about chrome. It's either nickel, copper or gold discovery announcements, or the market yawns and gives the share price a spanking. Hard to figure, but such is the way the market is currently. The good thing for FWR shareholders is the announcement by Watson, that the next phase of the drilling program will be looking for nickel. Many are predicting FWR has a very good shot of indeed finding some nickel on their next few drill holes. In fact the VTEM surveys are showing this 100% FWR owned anomoly to having the best prospect in all of McFaulds Lake. If this drill program fails to come up with some decent intercepts of nickel, investors should be fearful of every finding another hit of mineralized massive sulphides, like the Eagle One hit came up with. What McFaulds Lake badly needs right now is a halt by FWR, announcing some visuals with massive sulphides in it. This would arouse some investor speculation and all the stocks in McFaulds Lake would benefit. JMHO

FNC's share price has finally stabilized and it appears the low $.40 range is where the price has settled at, for the time being. On Friday FNC announced they will be doing a flow-through financing at $.50 for 4 million shares, each share will have an attached 1/2 share warrant, excercisable at $.75 for a period of 2 years after the financing closes. This money raised, will be used solely for the purpose, of further drilling on their McFaulds Lake property. FNC also announced a 500,000 share non-flow-through offering, under the same terms as above. This money will used to replenish FNC's treasury. In total this brings up a possibility of 6.75 million additional shares into FNC's o/s share count. So basically we will have an extra 25% more shares if everything is excercised. Now we hear a rumour that Xstrata has been in contact with Peter Smith. I'm not sure if this rumour was floated out there to get some interest in FNC's PP, or perhaps, if true, Xstrata wants to get a piece of FNC tied up, before making a play, on perhaps NOT. My bet is if we see Xstrata take down this flow-through PP, we would see a bid, for all, or part, of NOT, from Xstrata, in the not too distant future. Definitely this is worth keeping your eye on, as the story unfolds. I would think if Xstrada's name is associated with FNC's PP, NOT's share price will get an immediate pop because of it. A very interesting situation indeed !!!

After listening to TME's executive address by Bruce Durham, I think it is time to add this stock, to our McFaulds Lake watchlist. I really haven't followed this stock that close. But, with their huge land position in McFaulds Lake and their announced drill programs, that we should be hearing lots more about, over the next couple of months, it is time I started doing some DD on this stock. If anyone has further DD they would like to share with this board, please take the time, to give us your update. For those that like to speculate, taking a position in TME right now, while it is near it's 52 week low, might be a prudent play. Thanks cappy for bring this stock to our attention.

After last weeks mini rally to end the week, hopefully we can keep the positive momentum going and get these McFaulds Lake stocks moving again. After the recent bloodbath in the junior mining sector, many of these stocks are at, or very near to their 52 week lows. If ever there was a time for bottom fishing, it appears now is it. JMHO

Best of luck to all McFaulds Lake investors.




Al

 

[LOR]

NEWS - Noront Continues to Outline World Class Chromite Mineralization at Blackbird One and Two
Posted by: AGORACOM on September 23, 2008 08:46AM


TORONTO, ONTARIO - (Sept. 23, 2008) - Noront Resources Ltd. ("Noront or the Company") (TSX VENTURE:NOT) is pleased to present an update on its operations as well as additional chrome results on its chromium exploration activities in the McFaulds Lake area of northern Ontario in the James Bay Lowlands.

EXPLORATION HIGHLIGHTS

1) Assay results received from Hole NOT-08-1G31 (see Table 1) from Blackbird One returned 75 meters from 337.5 meters onwards, averaging 38.2% Cr2O3 containing 26.1% Chrome (Cr) and 15.2% Iron (Fe) including 12 meters from 373.5 meters onwards, averaging 58.4% Cr2O3 containing 39.9% Cr and 15.5% Fe (Cr:Fe ratio of 2.6)

2) Drilling at Blackbird Two located 1,000 meters to the east of Blackbird One continues to encounter visible chromite mineralization in several holes testing the 900 metre long gravity anomaly.

One drill is currently drilling at the Blackbird Two chrome occurrence, and will be moving to test the area between Blackbird One and Blackbird Two in systematic step outs of 100 meters to explore the area to determine continuity of the two zones. As previously announced (refer to press release dated July 29, 2008) Blackbird Two was discovered while testing a large gravity anomaly located approximately 800 meters to the east of Blackbird One and 1 kilometre south of the Eagle One magmatic massive sulphide (MMS) deposit.

The recent success of Noront's drilling at Blackbird One and Two, has been a very positive development in the Company's exploration for base and industrial minerals in the Ring of Fire. The grades of Cr2O3 that are typically being encountered by our drilling at Blackbird One, along with a favourable chromium to iron ratio, as well as the large crystals of chromite in a talc matrix observed during microscopic examination of core samples, will potentially place this discovery amongst the best chrome deposits in the world.

While it is still too early to comment on the metallurgical characteristics of the rock and anticipated chrome recoveries, the grades being encountered in holes reported to date, are consistently greater than 40% Cr2O3, have a Cr:Fe ratio that approximates 2:1. This conceptually, would allow for the rock to be fed directly into smelters without any further processing. Concentrating the rock on site could be by gravity separation, at relatively low cash costs after the initial capital investment for the mill facilities. This would allow for substantial value added to the discovery. At current world contract market prices for chrome, of $2.05 (USD) per pound (as per the European Q3 contract price), the grade of 40% Cr2O3 would command a price of around $600 per tonne delivered to a deep water port. Simple upgrading of the rock by use of an attrition/gravity mill that removes the talc matrix and liberates the chromite would enhance the value of the rock substantially.

Early drilling at Blackbird Two identified three parallel bands of massive chromitite that appear to be of similar size and visual nature to the Blackbird One discovery. Additional discoveries by the Spider/Freewest/KWG joint venture of 48 metres of massive chromite located only a few kilometres northeast of Blackbird Two, along with Freewest's recent discovery of 100 metres of chromite that included 60 meters of massive chromite, continue to lead the Company to believe that there is a potential for an extensive massive chromite belt in the current area of drilling. These four chromite occurrences discovered in the McFaulds Lake area to date are situated along a strike length of 10 kilometers within the Ring of Fire (ROF) as previously reported by Noront, Freewest and the Spider/KWG/Freewest JV in their recent press releases. This concentration of occurrences lends support to the comparison with the Kemi Mine in Finland, where multiple chromite lenses occur in a similar geological setting along a 15 kilometre belt as presented in Noront's recently filed NI-43-101 report on the project area. (to see the report, please refer to Noront website www.norontresources.com)

Noront and other ROF Companies who continue to drill in the area have encountered and are now delineating a potential new Chromite belt that is still open at both ends along strike, where the ROF continues on ground wholly owned by Noront. The Company is committed to further identifying the chromite footprint of Blackbird Two and testing its other holdings along the ROF for chromite and related copper-nickel massive sulphide mineralization.

BLACKBIRD ONE CHROME OCCURRENCE

The Layered Chromite ("LC") zone at Blackbird One is best described as a complex of varying thicknesses of massive chromite bearing layers within the Peridotite Sill. These Chromitite layers dip steeply at approximately 60 degrees to the west paralleling the contact between the Peridotite Sill and the adjacent Granodiorite. The holes containing significant Chromite mineralization reported to date have delineated a chromite body along a strike length of 125 meters, down to a vertical depth of 500 meters over wide core widths with favorable high Cr/Fe ratios. Blackbird One chrome occurrence is open. During the reporting period since last press release an additional three holes were completed designed to test this chrome occurrence, assays for only one hole in its entirety have been received.

TABLE 1: Recently received significant Assay results (Blackbird One)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------Hole ID From To Int. Cu Ni Pd Pt Au TPM Cr- Cr Fe (m) (m) (m) % % (g/t) (g/t) (g/t) (g/t) 2O3% % %----------------------------------------------------------------------------NOT-08- -1G31 337.5 412.5 75 0.02 0.15 0.24 0.18 0.03 0.45 38.2 26.1 15.2----------------------------------------------------------------------------Inclu-ding 373.5 385.5 12.0 0.004 0.14 0.15 0.15 0.01 0.31 58.4 39.9 15.5----------------------------------------------------------------------------



Due to the limited number of drill hole and assay results, true widths are not yet determined for the chromite (LC) zones at Blackbird One. Assays are pending for the following drill hole recently completed at the Blackbird One occurrence.


TABLE 2: Summary of Recent Drilling (Blackbird One, assays pending)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------Hole North- East- North- East- Azimuth Dip Len- ObservedNumber ing ing ing ing (deg- (deg- gth Mineral- local local (UTM) (UTM) rees) rees) (m) ization (m) (m)--------------------------------------------------------------------------NOT-08- 750 3245 5842060 546150 0 -90 546 248.5-249.3: 1G58 int cr beds----------------------------------------------------------- 249.3-250.3: massive cr 296.7-297.0: massive cr 297.3-298.3: massive cr 298.7-299.4 : intermitt cr beds 330.5-330.8: massive cr--------------------------------------------------------------------------NOT-08- 5842100 546200 0 -90 454.3 no signif- 1G60 icant cr mineralization--------------------------------------------------------------------------NOT-08- 5842138 546250 0 -90 804.6 705.0 -713.0: 1G62 Diss - int cr short massive cr-------------------------------------------------------------------------- 722.9 - 726.0: diss - int cr, short mass cr ------------- 734.0-735.9: diss - mass cr, with shortmass cr--------------------------------------------------------------------------



Notwithstanding the foregoing, visual observations are estimates only and pending assay results may not confirm visual observations in whole or in part. The drill has been moved away from this site for the time being and has moved to continue drilling in the vicinity of Eagle One.

BLACKBIRD TWO CHROME OCCURRENCE

The Blackbird Two chrome occurrence was recently discovered (see press release dated July 30, 2008) while testing a 900 metre long gravity anomaly, centered approximately 1,000 metres to the east of Blackbird One. There have been 11 holes drilled to test this anomaly, 6 of which have intersected massive chromite layers. No assays have been received from this chromite occurrence. The following table provides location and descriptions of each hole drilled to test this anomaly, that has been traced along strike for 340 meters between UTM sections 546555 mE to 546895 mE.


TABLE 3: Summary of Recent Drilling (Blackbird 2 assays pending)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------Hole North- East- North- East- Azimuth Dip Len- ObservedNumber ing ing ing ing (deg- (deg- gth Mineral- local local (UTM) (UTM) rees) rees) (m) ization (m) (m)--------------------------------------------------------------------------NOT-08- 280 4000 5842238 547024 315 -50 516.8 152.5 - 170.4 1G57 semi- massive cr 173.3 - 188.5: diss - massive cr 362.5 - 417.7 interm. cr beds--------------------------------------------------------------------------NOT-08- 500 4000 5842340 546895 135 -50 390 127.6 - 129.6 1G59 diss - massive cr 175.6 - 177.1 diss - massive cr 273.0 - 283.2 massive cr 292.5 - 294.2 massive cr--------------------------------------------------------------------------NOT-08- 700 4000 5842540 546730 135 -50 600 280.4 - 297.75 1G61 semi- massive cr 336.0 - 339.0 interm - diss cr 345.0 - 357.6 diss - massive cr 369.0 - 370.7 diss - massive cr 375.0 - 417.2 diss - mass cr 451.8 - 455.5 diss cr 465.0 - 468.6 diss cr 501.0 - 504.0 interm - semi mass cr 504.0 - 535.6: massive cr--------------------------------------------------------------------------NOT-08- 426 4200 5842509 547105 155 -50 567 no significant 1G63 cr mineral- ization--------------------------------------------------------------------------NOT-08- 287 4925 5842370 546830 155 -70 636 504.0 - 509.0: 1G64 interm cr 509.0 - 537.2: massive cr 537.2 - 540.3: interm cr--------------------------------------------------------------------------NOT-08- 287 4925 5842370 546830 155 -50 417 123.3 - 133.6: 1G65 interm cr 189.0 - 234.2: interm cr 362.6 - 398.5: interm cr 438.2 - 438.4: massive cr--------------------------------------------------------------------------NOT-08- 340 4430 5842595 547275 155 -60 519 no significant 1G66 cr mineral- ization--------------------------------------------------------------------------NOT-08- 340 4430 5842595 547275 155 -45 no significant 1G67 cr mineral- ization--------------------------------------------------------------------------NOT-08- 390 4330 5842559 547182 155 -50 429 no significant 1G68 cr mineral- ization--------------------------------------------------------------------------NOT-08- 5842330 546740 155 -50 690 156.4 - 159.2: 1G69 massive cr 160.7 - 168.5 massive cr 168.5 - 226.5: dissem cr 261 - 267: diss to massive cr 267 - 280: diss cr 280 - 378.5: diss - massive cr 418 - 422: semi massive cr 609.14 - 611.8: massive cr--------------------------------------------------------------------------NOT-08- 5842245 546555 155 -50 und- 140.0 - 145.5: 1G7 erway semi-massive - mass cr 146.1 - 149.7: interm cr beds 161.9 - 162.2: mass - semi mass cr 220.1 - 221.5: interm cr layers 226.5 - 241.5: interm cr layers 261.4 - 265.4: interm cr layer 337.5 - 342.0: interm cr layers--------------------------------------------------------------------------



INDEPENDENT QUALITY CONTROL AND ANALYTICAL PROTOCOL

A thorough quality control program has been in effect for the Double Eagle project which includes grouping samples into batches of 35 into which are added 2 certified reference material standards, 2 field blanks comprised of sterile drill core, and a field duplicate. Coarse reject and pulp duplicates also form part of the QC program. Approximately 10% of the samples are sent to a secondary lab as a monitor on the principal lab. It can be said with confidence that all assays as reported in this Press Release have passed the strict quality control guidelines as set out by Noront's independent Qualified Person ("IQP").

All samples reported upon herein were completed by Activation Labs (Actlabs) of Ancaster, Ontario. The samples submitted to Actlabs were analyzed for multi-elements, including Ni and Cu using a four acid digest followed by ICP analysis. The samples that received base metal values greater than the upper limit for the method underwent further analysis using ICP-OES. For the Au, Pd and Pt, the assay methodology was Fire Assay on a 30 gram aliquot with an ICP finish. Silver was analyzed using a 3-acid digest with an ICP analysis. For final chrome analysis, on the samples where elemental chrome using the ICPOES multi-element analysis methodology provides greater than 1% Cr, the samples are then submitted for additional analysis using INAA that involves irradiating the samples prior to final analysis. This methodology provides analysis in percent for elemental Cr as well as Cr2O3 and elemental Fe. For more information on assay methodology please visit the Activation Laboratories Ltd. Website at http://www.actlabsint.com.

DELAYS IN REPORTING FINAL CHROME ASSAYS

Due to the high number of samples that are being submitted for INAA analysis and the dependency on a research reactor located at MacMaster University in Hamilton Ontario, Canada, there is currently a large backlog of samples awaiting final analysis. Actlabs assures Noront that they are working their way through the backlog as quickly as they can.

Drilling results in this press release have been reviewed in the field and approved for dissemination by Noront's senior management including John Harvey, P.Eng. Chief Operating Officer of Noront and Dr. Jim Mungall P.Geo., Noront's new Chief Geologist, both being Qualified Persons under Canadian Securities guidelines.

Noront is a tier 2 junior resource company on the TSX Venture Exchange, trading symbol NOT, with 129,824,783 shares issued to date.

Investors are invited to visit Noront's IR Hub at http://www.agoracom.com/IR/Noront where they can post questions and receive answers or review questions and answers already posted by other investors. Alternatively, investors are able to e-mail all questions and correspondence to NOT@agoracom.com where they can also request to be added to the investor e-mail list to receive all future press releases and updated in real time.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS:

R. Nemis, President and Chief Executive Officer

This press release includes certain "Forward-Looking Statements" within the meaning of the US Private Securities Reform Act of 1995. Other than statements of historical fact, all statements are "Forward-Looking Statements" that involve such various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove accurate. Results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Readers of this press release are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these "Forward-Looking Statements".


The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.


For more information, please contact

Noront Resources Ltd.
Neil Novak P.Geo.
(416) 864-1456
Website: www.norontresources.com

 

[LOR]

Tuesday morning thoughts from TC

Good morning. Overseas, the Hang Seng in China is down 2.68% and the Nikkei in Japan is closed for a holiday. In China investors are questioning what happens if the US bailout plan falls apart, which it is showing signs of doing. Now that the initial exuberance has wore off, there is skepticism if Washington's $700 billion plan can really install confidence it the US financial system, with these costs exploding the US budget deficit. In Europe all the major indices opened down this morning, because of investor uncertainty as the planned $700 billion rescue package to shore up the embattled U.S. financial system looks set to drag into next week as U.S. lawmakers are haggling over how exactly they can make Wall Street pay for the bailout. There is nothing on the economic calendar for today and the early morning futures numbers are pointing to a lower opening on Wall St. In Canada it all depends on the strength of the $US and commodity prices, for the direction of the TSX.

All eyes will be on Washington today, as the US lawmakers try to figure out alternatives to the Paulson Plan. Later today, Treasury Secretary Paulson faces the Senate Banking Committee and we should hear details on his rescue plan. There is a rising tide of dissent as the plan comes under attack, but with time constraints to get a deal done, by the end of the upcoming weekend, it is doubtful any meaningful alternative plan will be brought forward. The reality of the situation, is the best that US lawmakers can hope for, is to get a few concessions and amendments. Paulson and Bernacke have Washington backed into a corner, with very little wriggle room. Bringing such a plan to Congress a few weeks before an election has many US lawmakers under considerable pressure, as many angry US taxpayers are voicing their concerns. A few close elections could possibly be won or lost on how a lawmaker votes on this one. The mess Wall St created, is hitting Main St, like a category 5 hurricane. It is hard not to feel sorry for our taxpaying friends, south of the border, for the mess George Bush and his team have allowed to get this far out of hand. The citizens of the USA will be paying for these mistakes, for decades down the road. I really could careless which party is in power in the USA, but if this had happened in Canada, the party that allowed this fiasco to happen, would never get another vote from me, to the day I was planted 6 ft under. Interesting times in the USA.

Back in McFaulds Lake, NOT had a good day yesterday as its share price was up 14.9% on above average volume. The support level is at $1.50 with $2.12 being the resistance. However, first NOT would need to break atop it's 13(MA), which is at $1.94, this is the resistance level that NOT touched yesterday at it's high of the day, but failed to break through. If NOT can break through it's 13(MA)and close above $1.94 it would be confirmation that NOT has finally broken out of it's long downtrend. It would be a very bullish sign. The resistance at $2.12 should prove to be a tough level to break through and most likely would require news to do so. The chart indicators have all turned bullish, so it looks good for the short term. The way NOT traded yesterday, my guess is the stock is expecting news. From NOT's last news release on Sept 15th, we were told, "Information on the Blackbird One chrome occurrence as well as other news related to the chrome potential of the area as encountered at Blackbird Two will be the subject of a separate release to be issued soon". So this could possibly be the news the share price is predicting. Getting the story out to investors, of this chrome discovery, is of utmost importance to NOT. So far the market is giving NOT very little, if any, valuation to it's market cap, for this massive chrome discovery. With some world class assay grades reported so far, and the possibility of massive amounts of tonnage, at some point you would think investors will wake up. NOT is saying this chrome discovery looks to be at least 20kms long, with the potential to be much longer. High grades and massive tonnage = "World Class Discovery". When you sit down and do some rough calculations the billions of dollars worth of ore here, is simply mindboggling. JMHO

It is also entirely possible that yesterdays share price was reacting to the rumour mill. It doesn't seem to matter, who you talk to lately about NOT, the talk soon turns to a possible JV from a major, or a takeout in its entirety. Long ago Nemis was quoted as saying this McFaulds Lake project was simply too big for a company of NOT's size, to bring to fruition. There is certainly a good chance, we could be hearing more about this scenario, playing out in the very near future.

Another interesting possibility for a news release, from NOT, is a visual update, from drilling that is currently underway, on the Eagle One deposit. Yes NOT is back drilling on the border where the Eagle One deposit meets the FNC property. NOT told investors at the time when they released the 43-101, that this pod was open to the south and at depth. NOT is trying to add tonnage to its 43-101, from this very rich pod of mineralization. Perhaps getting some assays back with 3% + Nickel and some good PGE percentages will grab investors attention again.

The FNC story continues to have some interesting twists and turns. First we hear rumours that Xstrada has contacted Peter Smith in the midst of a PP, which opens up some interesting possibilities. Now we hear strong rumours, that there was PGE's in the core samples, that FNC sent to the lab, assays are pending. Yesterday rumours were surfacing, that NOT was following a conduit of massive sulphides from their Eagle One drilling program and they found themselves on FNC property. Supposedly they contacted Peter Smith and they are continuing drilling on FNC's side of the imaginary fence line. One has to wonder if all these rumours have anything to do with FNC trying to raise money for its announced PP, currently underway. Investors may want to keep an eye on FNC's share price today, to see if any of these rumours have any validity. Never a dull moment when you are dealing with Peter Smith!!!

Yesterday PRB's share price was up over 53% on fairly good volume. I have heard nothing on why this surprise rally occurred. I have asked around and no one seems to have any answers. A few possibilities, but nothing confirmed here, and these are total outright guesses on my part. Perhaps the rumour that Xstrada has been in contact with FNC gave the stock a little boost? Or, someone in the know, has heard something about assay results from the McFaulds West drill program? Or perhaps Palmer and Nemis have worked out their differences and are planning a JV agreement? Whatever the reason, you may want to keep your eye on this stock today, to see if there is any follow through.

Yesterday we got a surprise news release from BMK, announcing that it had restarted it's drill program, after a 3 week vacation for its drill crew. Supposedly this break, gave them time to catch up on core logging and sampling. They also announced core samples have been sent to the lab for analysis. A tidbit of info that I found interesting from yesterdays news release, was where BMK announced, they are now employing a new computer modeling process. Supposedly this new process allows them to efficiently locate targets at greater depths, with improved accuracy, clarity and at significantly reduced costs. Also I found very interesting, was the part where the Company said, they have seen a dramatic increase in the percentage of successful "hits" of mineralization on the most recent holes drilled, intersecting more sulphides then the past and at greater depths. Through this modeling process, the Company has been able to verify the conductive source of its targets in every instance. BMK's share price was up over 31% on yesterdays news. Not sure if it's just me, but reading yesterdays news and just picking out the few tidbits of info, that I found interesting. I now expect to see a floor under BMK's share price and I expect to see some additional volume. As much as I have been down on BMK's management for their assinine PP, they did months ago, I really hope the share price does well, for those that have been bagholder's of this stock for months now. BMK was actually the poster child, for what happens to an area play stock, in McFaulds Lake, that disappoints the market with assay results. "If", I was a bagholder of this stock from much higher share price levels, I would at this time, buy a few shares, to try and average down my cost per share. JMHO

As we can see, there is obviously a lot happening in McFaulds Lake currently. There are numerous other drilling programs, that I failed to make mention of, in this mornings thoughts. With tens of millions of dollars being spent on these numerous drill programs currently underway, it is only a matter of time, before someone hits another significant discovery. I fully expect to see the words "mineralized massive sulphide" discovery at some point in the very near future. I'm not sure when, or by who, but the odds are just too good for this scenario not to happen. When it does, investors will come scambling back in droves, to the McFaulds Lake story. If anyone doesn't think that McFaulds Lake is someday going to be a major mining camp in Canada, they are just not listening to what has been unfolding in this story over the past year. JMHO

To the many readers of this McFaulds Lake board on TradingChief, I would like to thank you for your dedicated following and kind words from numerous PM's that I have received. Thank you also to the many people who take the time to post on this board. For those that read this board, take the time to recommend some of these posts, if you feel they are worth reading. This encourages people to post. This board could be much more informative than it currently is, but it needs more people to post. If only half the people that take the time to send me PM's, would post some of the rumours and happenings on some of these stocks, this board would increase it's readership 10 fold. Many people don't realize just how many people are in the know, of what is happening in McFaulds Lake, much sooner than we ever see hitting the newswires. It is extremely difficult for me to post some of these happenings with second hand info. Please take the time to keep the readers of this board informed, post your info, if at all possible. I realize some people don't want to jeopordize their sources, that is the reason they don't post. To this group I fully understand. Remember, informed investors are investors who get the jump on the herd. Getting the jump on the herd, is how we as investors make money. Obviously, we all follow and invest in these stocks to make money !!!

Best of luck to all McFaulds Lake investors.




Al

 

[LOR]

This was posted on AB

Our Chromite
Posted by: CMP on September 24, 2008 09:20AM

The known world resourses of chromite is approximately 12 billion tonnes not including ours and that is enough to supply the world for a few centuries. Therefore the key is for our deposit to be able to compete on the world markets and wrestle sales from the few companies that now mine and produce chromite. To use Kemi as a comparison since that mine has been referenced in Noront reports, we look very favorable. They have reserves at 40MT at 24.5%CR2O3 and 1.53:1 CR:FE ratio while our latest press release shows ours at "a lot of tonnes" at 38% CR2O3 and a 2.6 CR:FE ratio. So looking at the ore quality on just those parameters, we are far superior.

Kemi processes the ore in a normal sequence of mining, crushing, wet gravity concentration. The chrome recovery is 80% and the concentrate is 44% CR2O3 which is not much higher than our ore grade. Depending on the metalurgy, we may be able to get much higher percentage concentrates of CR2O3, probably in excess of 60%. This would make us far superior because if selling to a smelter, they don't have as much waste to contend with.

With regard to value, Noront has stated that 40% ore will fetch $600 per tonne. All you have to do is mine it, crush it and transport it to a port. The big question is whether it makes econmic sense to refine the ore by concentrating it and next stage to smelter it. When you concentrate any ore, you lose some in the process. The amount you get to save is called recovery rate. Kemi is 80% so we will use that. A tonne of our raw ore at 40% CR2O3 will get you 705 lb of pureCR2O3 and a lot less waste to have to move around compared to Kemi's 458lb per raw ore tonne. Looks pretty good for us.

Looking at concentrate, at 44% a tonne of Kemi's concentrate is 969lb metal and our concentrate at an estimated 60% has 1322.4lb metal. If they can be achieved, these are the parameters that will make the orebody competitive with the world. The cost of new infrastructure competing with existing infrastructure is quite another issue and one the big players are doing their homework on before jumping on board with us. This is in my opinion the biggest obstacle.

 

[LOR]

Wednesday morning thoughts from TC

Good morning. The major Asian indices turned the tide from the selling on the North American indices yesterday. The Hang Seng was up .47% and the Nikkei was up .20%. The Asian indices were led higher by the financial sector. The news that Warren Buffett plans to invest $5 billion in Goldman Sachs helped soothe investor fears. In Europe the major indices are all flat waiting for direction from Wall St. However, the Buffett news and a move by central banks to inject money into the financial system has lifted investor sentiment. On the economic calendar for today we have Existing Home Sales numbers at 10 am, followed by Crude Inventories numbers at 10:35am. The early futures are pointing to a positive opening on Wall St. Higher commodity prices should bode well for the Canadian indices to start the day.

Back in McFaulds Lake, we had NOT finally releasing long awaited assays from their chrome deposits. Initial reaction was positive but, the sharp sell off in the TSX-v finally took it's toll and NOT finished down 3% for the day. Once again NOT rallied right up to its 13(MA) but failed to break through this important resistance point. For today NOT is showing support at $1.69 and $1.99 as resistance. Obviously it is going to take a change in investor sentiment in junior resource stocks, before NOT is going to be able to break out of it's current trading range.

The news from NOT yesterday on its chrome deposits, was from all accounts excellent. Slowly but surely, NOT is showing it's chrome discovery is a world class discovery. However, North American investors still fail to give NOT very little valuation towards it's market cap, from this discovery. This is a very frustrating situation for the shareholders of NOT and I am sure management must be left shaking their heads. Personally I think NOT needs to just keep drilling the Blackbird One and Two deposits and come up with a 43-101. Once Nemis can put some kind of dollar valuation to the chrome deposit, institutional investors will take notice. With billions of dollars worth of assets in the ground, all NOT investors can do is bide their time. If and when money returns to the junior resource sector, I expect NOT to be one of the first stocks to bounce and bounce hard to the upside.

I was reading the NOT board on Agoracom and couldn't help but notice the frustration of many of the permabulls. I can understand their frustration, but all these conspiracy theories have left the board almost unreadable and not worth the time. However, there are still a few very good posters on the site, who dig up some excellent DD, that is certainly worth reading. Yesterday 90% of the posts were blaming the shorters for holding back NOT's share price. I wish these posters would take the time to educate themselves on how the market works, then they would realize just how silly these witch hunt posts have become. NOT's share price is where it is at, because of market conditions, plain and simple. It has absolutely nothing to do with those that choose to short NOT. Personally I would not short NOT, because to me, it is far too risky. However, these shorts do offer very important liquidity to the market. Remember every one of these current shorts, will end up being buyers of NOT, at some point in the future. Just imagine if NOT hits another pod of nickel like the Eagle One pod. The news would cause the share price of NOT to explode to the upside, in a panic those current shorts would be scrambling to buy shares as the price goes up. Because of the shorts being forced to cover, NOT's share price would do the opposite as it is doing now, it would overshoot to the upside. This would afford current shareholders the opportunity to sell their shares at inflated prices and buyback once the share price returned to normalcy. These situations are how you can make big money, playing the stock market. Taking advantage of the opportunities the market affords you, to me, is what playing the market is all about. So to the witch hunters and conspiracy advocates, instead of wasting your time worrying about the things you can't control, take the time to educate yourself in how the market really works. In this way you can work on the things you can control. You will be doing yourself a huge favour. JMHO

FNC's share price has stabilized, as investors wait for updates from Peter Smith. The one problem for FNC is the volume has dropped off considerably and the spreads between the bids and asks has widened to levels that makes playing this stock very risky. We should be getting an update from FNC shortly to find out the status of their announced PP. From their last update, I'm not sure if they have found investors to take down the last PP or they are still searching for investors. One thing is for certain, it will be very interesting to find out who has participated in this PP, as it will offer some very important clues to retail investors. If the core samples sent to the lab were marked rush, we could be hearing more about them at any time. I thought the share price of FNC would of done better yesterday on the rumour that NOT was drilling right on their doorstep or possibly on FNC's property. If NOT does find something of interest and gives us an update on a visual discovery, it certainly should give FNC's share price a boost.

ThE rumour that Xstrata had phoned Peter Smith, if true, could be giving us some clues what is happening behind the scenes in McFaulds Lake. It certainly would not surprise me, to see a major, try and get themselves in a JV situation with the likes of PRB and FNC, before taking a closer look at NOT. It just makes good business sense when you step back and look at the big picture. At some point all these smaller companies, will have to get together with NOT, if they want to make themselves saleable to a major. The only other way is for the major to tie up all the loose ends with these small companies, then take a run at the big boy, NOT. With the billions of dollars worth of chrome, nickel and PGE's that NOT has already identified with their drill programs, an offer for a JV partnership or a complete buyout of NOT, shouldn't surprise anyone in the very near future. The current weakness in NOT's share price, certainly makes them an attractive target. I am of the opinion, it would be a shame to see NOT getting bought out so early in the game, but such is life in the mining industry.

FWR's share price continues to disappoint investors. With so much on their plate it is very disappointing to see this company with a market cap under $50 million dollars. It is just part of the sad reality of the current state of junior mining stocks. Anyone with patience that feels the resource market correction is way overdone, should use this time to pick up shares of this little gem on the cheap. Many geologist types are saying don't be surprised to see a big hit from FWR shortly. The VTEM surveys are showing FWR's 100% owned property, that they are currently drilling, to have one of the best chances for success, in all of McFaulds Lake. At present I have no shares in FWR, but the plan is to buy into this stock shortly. It wouldn't surprise me to see a halt called at any time and an announcement of a nickel hit with this stock. JMHO

Many investors are saying why would you want to invest in stocks in the resource sector, especially the junior mining stocks, at this time. However history has shown the best time to buy stocks is when no one else is. Those that use this time to buy up some of these stocks on the cheap, may find yourself being rewarded, with some huge percentage gains, down the road. Opportunity only knocks every so often. It is my belief that currently we are being afforded a tremendous opportunity. However, do your homework and only buy those junior mining stocks that aren't in need of financing any time soon. Your payday may be huge, if you choose the stocks that you are buying wisely. It is all about risk/reward in the stock market. I believe the scales have been tipped on the side of reward, for junior mining stocks, at this time. JMHO

Best of luck to all McFaulds Lake investors.



Al

 

[LOR]

Thursday morning thoughts from TC

Good morning. In Asia the major indices are all in the red this morning, but the losses are all under 1%, with very light trading volumes. It appears the Asian markets are in wait and see mode, with investors standing on the sidelines, waiting to see the details on the US bailout plan. Foreign financial institutions are finding it extremely difficult to borrow funds from Japanese banks, as they are reluctant to lend right now, until some of the risks are removed, meaning, they want to see details of the US bailout/rescue plan. In Europe the major indices, are mixed right now, with the FTSE in England being the only indice trading in the red, this because of weak oil stocks outweighing the banking stock gains. However, the light volumes of stocks traded, show they also are in wait and see mode, with uncertainty about the US Treasury's bail out plan. The markets worldwide know there needs to be quick action by the US lawmakers, as the alternatives are very dire for the world's financial system. On the economic calendar for today we have the Durable Goods Orders and the Initial Jobless Claims numbers at 8:30am. At 10am the New Home Sales numbers are released. The early futures numbers are pointing to a positive opening, for the US indices. All eyes today will be on the emergency meeting, called by George Bush to hammer out details of the bailout/rescue plan. If US lawmakers fail to come to a quick resolution, the markets could get very ugly to end the week. On the flip side, if the plan is passed, we should see an initial euphoria spike, in the indices around the world, as the financial crisis will be perceived to have received a bandage, to stem the flow of blood in the streets, that has plagued the world's equity markets. Plain and simple, the world's financial system, teeters on the edge of a cliff.

Back in McFaulds Lake, the big 3, NOT, FWR and FNC, all enjoyed a positive day for their share prices. NOT's share price once again traded in a tight range all day, on well below average volume, but did close just one cent under the high of the day. I'm not sure if anyone noticed but NOT's share price finally closed above it's falling 13(MA), which is at $1.82. For today we have support at $1.65 and $1.95 is resistance. "If", NOT can open, trade all day and close above it's 13(MA), that very important (MA), will become support. The chart indicators are for the most part bullish, but yesterday's low volume make them suspect at best. If NOT can break atop the resistance point of $1.97, a test of the 50(MA) at $2.63, would be the next target.

We continue to hear rumours on the possibility of a major, buying in, for a percentage of NOT. This would most likely be for a percentage of NOT's chrome discovery. I would doubt, if it indeed does happen, that the buyin price would be for much more, if not a little lower, than NOT is currently trading at. But what it would do, is give NOT a much needed cash infusion in their treasury. NOT currently has around $40 million in the bank, but in the markets of today, you can never have too much cash. If NOT could raise another $20 to $30 million dollars, it would be well financed for the next couple of years. This would be seen as a huge boost to investor sentiment towards NOT, as many believe it will be very tough for junior mining companies to raise cash for the next couple of years. The reality of the markets for junior resource stocks is cash will be king. There will be two types of stocks in the resource stock world, those that have cash and those that don't. Those that don't have cash and are in need of financing, any where down the road, for the next couple of years, are to be avoided like the plague. The middle class, so to speak, will be wiped out in this new economic order for junior resource explorers. You will either be part of the elite group(those with cash), or you will be part of the slum group (those in need of cash). If you are part of the slum group, you will be basically worthless. The writing is on the wall and those that don't pay attention to it, will be sitting on dead money for a long time. JMHO

FNC had an interesting day yesterday, with it's share price up over 20% for the day. I would imagine that FNC's share price was up, due to the rumour that NOT, following a conduit, ended up drilling under the property line, into FNC's side. The rumour is, NOT phoned FNC and was given permission to drill. If true, this could/should be very positive for FNC's share price. From the visual update given by Peter Smith, in the first 3 holes of his current drill program, it appeared FNC was finding all the right indicators, that mineralization was very near to where they were drilling. However, they had failed to hit the motherlode. I don't pretend to know or understand all the complexities of trying to find mineralization of this type, but I think the easiest way to explain it, is they are trying to find a needle in the proverbial haystack. Once it is found, then they can expand on it, with step-out drilling. Investors may want to keep an eye out for the expected announcement from Peter Smith, that financing details have been arranged for their PP attempt. It is not easy to try an arrange financing in the current market environment. For someone to put up the kind of money that this PP is looking for, one would have to believe they have done their homework and indeed believe, FNC has a good shot at finding something of significance. I do know for a fact, FNC is not searching for chrome, in this drill program. Think nickel or PGE's!!!

FWR's share price had an excellent day yesterday. The share price was up 20% and the volume was almost 5 times the daily average. All the chart indicators are very bullish. The close at $.30 is at or above all it's major (MA)'s. Today if FWR can open at $.30 or above and close above $.30, it would be extremely bullish and would then have the 200(MA) as support. Yesterday the rumours were rampant with news, that FWR and made another hit in it's drill program. Judging by the volume, the rumours certainly appear to have some validity to them. Many are expecting this new hit to be a nickel discovery. I would like to advise caution if this is the reason you are buying or holding shares of FWR. The possibility that this hit is another chrome discovery, should be in your realm of possibilities. After seeing yesterdays volume and share price appreciation, it is certainly possible we could see FWR halted at some point today, perhaps before the open. If there is no halt, it would raise the odds significantly, that this indeed, is another chrome hit. You can be sure any company drilling in the ROF, that comes up with a visual core sample of nickel mineralization, over any respectable intercept, would halt their stock, to tell the investment world. The words, "mineralized massive sulphides", would certainly wake up the investment world. I'm just not convinced that FRW's latest drill hole will have the words, we are all looking for. JMHO

Once again I would like to offer the readers of this board, the opportunity to see what this site is all about. Currently the site is offering 7 day free trials to those interested. For those interested in the ROF stocks, the topic of conversation in the LongTerm Investor chat room is often about these various stocks. Some of our members tell our entry and sell points on some of these stocks and the reasons for doing so. You would be amazed how your portfolio grows in cash value, if you apply some basic investment techniques, to the way you manage your portfolio. Often investors tell me their reason for not going the site is the cost of $20 a month. My simple answer to them, it is not a matter of how you can afford the $20 a month membership fee, it is a matter how can you afford not to be a member. One simple trade and you can afford to pay years of membership dues. JMHO

Best of luck to all McFaulds Lake investors.




Al

 

[LOR]

Friday morning thoughts from TC

Good morning. Overseas, the major Asian indices are down again this morning, with the Hang Seng down 1.33% and the Nikkei down .94%. The concern here is the failure of the lawmakers in the US to come up with an agreement on details for the $700 billion bailout plan. In Europe all the major indices are down in 2% range. The financial stocks are leading the charge down in Europe, after the U.S. failure to agree a $700 billion financial sector bailout plan and the collapse of U.S. bank Washington Mutual. On the economic calendar for today we have the Chain Deflator-Final and the GDP-Final numbers at 8:30 am, followed by the Michigan Sentiment-Revised numbers at 10 am. The early futures are showing a sharp decline is coming for the US indices at the open today. Any further disappointing news, from the US Congress, to save the $700 billion Wall Street rescue plan, and todays declines could pick up some steam. When you have the Republicans in the US Congress, failing to back up their Presidents own plan, it shows you the sad state of American politics. In the US, politics to these spineless politicians is more important than the worlds financial system. No wonder we are starting to see calls from world leaders to abandon the $US currency as the world standard.

Back in McFaulds Lake, NOT's share price was down 5% yesterday, on the lightest volume of shares traded in over 3 weeks. Once again NOT failed to hold the support of its 13(MA), now at $1.78 and closed under this important MA. Looking at the chart the sideways consolidation continues and for today, NOT has support at $1.65 with $1.91 it's resistance point. The chart indicators have all turned flat showing the consolidation pattern. Obviously it is going to take news, to get NOT's share price motivated, or a change in market sentiment towards junior mining stocks in general. At this point, the news will have to come from something other than NOT's chrome discoveries.

So the big question is, what will it take to get the market to realize that NOT, deserves some sort of valuation from their chrome discoveries? NOT has done it's part, they have drilled and found some very impressive grades of this chrome. They have proved with their drilling programs, they have some massive tonnage of this high grade chrome. In fact, it has become obvious that the chrome discovered on just the Blackbird One and Two deposits is a world class discovery. There are chrome mines in operation, around the world that appear to have far less of this high grade chrome than NOT does. Yet the market gives NOT, very little valuation, if any, for this world class discovery. If you sit down and do some very rough calculations, you quickly come up with some valuations in the tens of billions of dollars range. I would be surprised if the chrome found so far wasn't worth at least $30 billion dollars, probably much higher. I realize the McFaulds Lake area is very remote, the cost of putting in a road and a railroad and the necessary infrastructure would probably cost at least $100 million dollars, if not more. However, when you are talking tens of billions dollars worth of mineable ore, the infrastructure costs look miniscule to me. I sit here scratching my head on this one, what am I missing, why is the market giving NOT no valuation for this world class chrome discovery?

The word on the rumour mill is that NOT is close to announcing a deal with a major. Before going any farther with this rumour, I want to caution everyone it is just a rumour, because unless we hear it from an official news release from NOT, it is far from fact. It doesn't matter if this comes from the horses mouth or his behind, nothing is fact, until accompanied by a news release. What we are hearing is NOT will sell off 10% of their chrome discoveries for X amount of dollars. I hear it is just for the chrome part of NOT, but it could be for 10% of the entire company. Once again, with no nr, these sort of things have a way of getting mixed up. If indeed this is true it would do two very important things for NOT. First it would give NOT a cash infusion to add to their already $40 million dollar cash position. In the current market environment the more cash the better. This would set NOT up with enough cash to keep drilling for at least two years, possibly three. Secondly and probably most important, selling a percentage of their chrome discovery, would show the market that yes indeed, chrome does have value. If a major puts a valuation on the chrome discovery, I'm sure the market would soon follow.

Putting all the above aside, what NOT really needs to get it's share price righted, is another nickel discovery of significance. The North American market may offer no valuation for chrome, but it does understand nickel discoveries. We should be getting some assays back soon from some of NOT's nickel discoveries. Eagle Two and AT-12 both have assays pending. We could also be hearing news from NOT from the Eagle One drilling. Now that NOT has decided to go back and add some tonnage to the 43-101 of Eagle One, we could be hearing some high grade assays again. It is important to note that NOT has always maintained the Eagle One deposit was open to the south and at depth. If NOT gets some high grade assays on its step outs from this deposit, it should generate some market excitement again.

FWR's share price continues to do the slow creep. It was up 6.66% again yesterday on far above average volume. At first many investors assumed with this kind of volume and share price appreciation, that FWR must of hit, more than just chrome, on their drill program. But from all accounts we are hearing that yes indeed it was another huge intercept of chrome that they discovered. The strange thing here being, that FWR reported a 100M intercept of chrome on their 1st drill hole and the market just yawned. Now we hear they have hit more chrome and the market responds. Mac Watson President of FWR has stated, they will no longer be drilling for chrome, they already know they have an abundance of it. Now the rest of their drilling program will be focused on hunting for nickel. The VTEM survey has identified some drilling locations, that many are saying looks much like the Eagle One geology. Perhaps the market is looking ahead to FWR drilling these prospective nickel targets. At one time when companies drilled in McFaulds Lake, investors did show some speculation fever. It has been so long since we have seen the market offer any speculative value to stocks drilling in McFaulds, this one has caught some of us by surprise. One important fact that should please many investors in FWR, is that this high volume, is chewing up some of the free trading paper from past PP's. Once FWR can clean up it's share structure from it's past PP's, this stock just might gets some legs. Many in the mining industry have nothing but good things to say about Mac Watson, he is highly respected by his peers. It certainly would be satisfying, to see one of the underdog, good guys, hit the motherlode. Best of luck to the many investors in FWR that have been so patient and hung in there through some rough times.

PRB's share price is slowly creeping back, after being crushed by their drilling miss on their McFaulds West property. We should be hearing an announcement shortly from PRB on a drilling date, to re-drill this property. I would imagine this is one of the reasons we are seeing the share price slowly creep up. Investors are in accumulation mode while the share price is still cheap, in anticipation of round two McFaulds West. Now might be the time to pick up some shares at cheap prices, for those that still believe in this company.

FNC's volume is back to it's anemic self again. Yesterday only 41,100 shares traded on this stock. The spread between the bid and ask makes playing this stock extremely difficult and one of the reasons why many choose to leave this stock alone. However, FNC may be down right now, but definitely not out. Where there is drilling there is still hope. I thought the news that NOT was drilling right on their doorstep may have given FNC's a bigger boost than it has. This is one stock you wouldn't want to bet the farm on. But, grabbing a few shares at current prices for those that like high risk, for possible high rewards, might be a prudent play right now. JMHO

BMK is another dog in McFaulds Lake, that may be worth taking a gamble on. Currently they are drilling and do have assays pending. If you go back and read their last news release, it does contain some tidbits of info, that offers some clues. BMK is not a company that does the rah, rahs, on visuals, so you have to read between the lines on their latest report. It does hint at some mineralization in their assays pending.

Best of luck to all McFaulds Lake investors.



Al

 

[LOR]

Monday morning thoughts from TC

Good morning. Overseas the Asian indices are down sharply this morning with the Hang Seng down 4.29% and the Nikkei down 1.26%. Investors in Asia are worried the US bailout plan is not a guarantee that things will improve. The Asian investors have now turned their focus on their own weak fundamentals. In Japan many economists are already predicting their economy has now slipped into a recession. In Europe the major indices are also down sharply, with the financial stocks taking another big hit, nationalisations and liquidity fears are hammering bank stocks and have overshadowed prospects in the United States of the $700 billion bailout plan for its banks going ahead. The banking stock contagion is spreading to mainland Europe and investors are wondering which bank will be the next to fail. Commodity stocks are also taking a big hit, led by lower metal prices on concerns the global economy may experience a significant slowdown. On the economic calendar we get the Personal Income and Personal Spending numbers at 8:30am. The early futures numbers are pointing to a sharply lower opening for Wall St. Perhaps when Congress votes on the bailout package later this morning, we will see a rally on the US indices. But it sure looks bleak at the open.

Back in McFaulds Lake, NOT ended last week on a downbeat, as it continues to struggle with trading above it's falling 13(MA). For today NOT has support at $1.58 and $1.82 is it's resistance. The 13(MA) is now at $1.75 and it must start trading above this level, or a test of it's 52 week low at $1.48 is probable. The weak market currently for commodity prices is obviously not doing NOT's share price any favours. Investors continue to bail out of resource stocks, on fears that a global economy recession will keep base metal prices under selling pressure. Personally I am starting to wonder if the Windfall gold project may be NOT's saving grace in the future.

The rumours continue that NOT is in negotiations for a possible sale of 10% of itself to a major. NOT's share price could certainly use the boost, it would get from a major taking a piece of it. The added cash to NOT's treasury would mean it would be well financed for at least 2 years down the road, possibly longer. A strong balance sheet, in these troubled times for the global economies, may mean the difference for survival or failure, for many junior resource stocks in the not to distant future. One thing about Nemis, he has stayed ahead of the curve, when it comes to keeping NOT's cash position in good standing. One has to wonder, at what point will the cash rich majors, start stepping in and buying up some of these juniors at cheap prices.

The above brings us to the point, of just how dangerous some of the permabull pumpers on NOT really are. When the glorieux type pumpers were telling investors to buy, buy, NOT at share prices of $6 and $7 dollars, everything looked rosy for commodity stocks. Now the bottom has fell out of the resource stocks and it may get worse. Many of the investors who max'ed out their credit cards and took mortgages out on their houses, for the sure thing called NOT, are now deep in the red. None of the glorieux type pumpers ever told their followers, to put in stop losses, to limit their losses. In fact they have just continued to pump the stock and now many investors have 100% of all their money tied up in NOT. I wonder what would happen if a major came along and decided to take a run at NOT, for let's say $2.50 a share. This would be a huge premium to NOT's current share price of $1.69, so the offer would probably be for less. Yes, NOT does have a shareholders rights provision. So NOT could make it difficult for a major to attempt a hostile takeover, but this provision doesn't make it impossible, by any stretch of the imagination. So after all these hurdles, are cleared by the major, lets say the final buyout price, could possibly get as high as $4 per share. I would imagine, a great percentage of shareholders, would jump at getting $4 a share for their NOT stock right now when the current price is $1.69, that would be one huge premium. However, if this scenario happened to play out, where would that leave the investors who payed $ 6 and $7 a share, with there max'ed out credit cards and mortgaged houses?

The morning thoughts posts have continued to tell investors to sell the rallies and buy the dips with NOT. The mere mention of telling people to use stop losses and take profits in NOT, when it was overbought, caused instant calls of basher, this daytrader moron is an idiot, posts on Agoracom. Most posts that warned investors where flagged, and many were deleted on Agoracom. The reason I finally threw up my hands and stopped posting on Agoracom's NOT and McFaulds Lake boards. I do feel bad for many of the newbee investors, that have listened to the permabull pumpers on Agoracom and are now sitting on huge losses for doing so.

FWR's share price continues to show share price strength and good trading volumes. If anyone has noticed, when FWR releases news about hitting chrome, the share price does nothing. However the word from Mac Watson, is FWR is now drilling for nickel and I believe this is the reason why FWR's share price is rallying. The VTEM surveys have shown that FWR's 100% owned property, has some excellent locations, to drill for nickel and investors are currently enjoying a speculative rally because of it. But, it is my belief, FWR needs to hit some nickel and it needs to do it soon, or this speculative rally will come to a screeching halt. The market continues to shun chrome and gives very little valuation, if any, to the market cap of any of these stocks that discover it. I'm not sure if this situation will continue, or what it will take to turn market sentiment around concerning chrome. The only thing I can think of, that will change the markets perception, is if somehow a major would take a piece of NOT and declare it did so because of this world class discovery. There is no denying that NOT and FWR are finding some excellent intercepts of high grade chrome. Or that is this is turning into a world class discovery for the chrome. But if the market doesn't give them any valuation whatsoever for these discoveries, does it really matter?

FNC continues to drill it's proximity property to the Eagle One discovery. Peter Smith is determined that this property has the motherlode and judging by how he got a PP rounded up, during a very tough time for financing, other investors seem to agree. It was certainly a bitter disappointment for many LT holders in FNC that the first 4 holes in this drilling program came up with no hits of significance. The first 4 holes apparently showed all the indicator minerals are there for a discovery. Finding a nickel discovery has often been mentioned to be like finding a needle in a haystack, so where there is drilling, there is hope. Come on FNC find that damn needle in the haystack, I went out on a limb long ago and predicted that FNC would be the mining story of 2008. I would hate to eat a full sized platter of humble crow, if I am proven wrong.

I continue to tell investors the merits of joining a site such as TradingChief. The thing about this site, is we are allowed to talk about the good, the bad and the ugly concerning each stock. The merits of looking at a stock not only from the fundamental side, but also from the technical side, is the difference between making money playing the stock market, or being a bagholder. If investors looked at the reason why they invested in a stock in the first place, it would be to make money. Why not use all the tools at your disposal and make your decision to make money playing the market, a reality?

Best of luck to all McFaulds Lake investors.




Al

 

[LOR]

FWR NEWS...much better than expected....
Posted by: johndefur on September 29, 2008 10:18AM

First...All the "markets" are taking a horrible beating...except of course GOLD...This Financial "crisis" is far from over...Fed and probably all World Central Banks to lower rates...maybe that's when the "markets" settle down and resume upward moves...
But never mind all that, the BIG news of today is FWR's confirmation of yet another BIG CHROME "HIT" another 330Ft of CHROME, this time in many forms, massive, semi massive, banded,disseminated etc...The NR makes it clear that a late Dyke intruded the RIF Sill and altered,moved and seperated the original deposit into sub zones...But it appears that it's almost still all there...

Much more important the NR details more or less exactly how they were found and drilled...BTW this current section of said sill runs for at least 1600m, and more imporantly, the legnth of said sill is said to be at least 4 Kms...It turns out that these "Gravity" anomalies are being found near the edges, and NOT inside, of these High Magbetic Sill intrusions, which run 4Kms inside FWR claims, as noted above...If you go to Freewest.com, and click on Black Thor, the second page shows cery clearly, this HUGE Intrusive sill running thru FWR claims for 4 Kms in purple... You will also easily note that a very similar 4 Kms Sill exactly same colour runs thru SPQjv, which would mean that this section of Chromite mineralization is very extensive indeed, as these deposits remain completely open ended along strike and depth...Simmilarly, the Kemi mine increases in width with depth, so there may far more Chromite at depth...

An interesting mention was made of exploring for MMS NiCuPges...I have been urging both SPQ and FWR to look for these MMS deposits, in a similar situ/positioning as NOT's E1 to Blackbird 1...

This FWR News along with NOT's and SPQjv is absolutely a game changer for the ROF...As noted above this is a horrible market, and thus the share prices may not reflect this right away, but mark my words, in a few months this market situatiion will change abruply, and the ROF will be one of the first exploration/minig areas to get respect and attention/interest and investments....

IMCO

JD*

 

[LOR]

There's Got to be a Morning After...

By Jon Nadler
Sep 30 2008 9:08AM

www.kitco.com



Good Morning,

A tumultuous night during which the Nikkei average dropped 483 points, was followed by some signs that a modicum of stability may be returning to global markets. Japanese stocks fell in sympathy with the brutal free-fall in New York, as if to say "we feel your pain - we've been there a long time ago..." A Franco-Belgian bank, Dexia, was the latest recipient of a life preserver over in Europe - a $9.2 billion dollar flotation vest, and assurances that the European banking system is still sound. Yes, sound enough for Monsieur Sarkozy to convene a summit of all French banking and insurance heads at the Elysee later today. Makes for a tinny and hollow 'sound. Well, at least there will be no partisan infighting about socializing failing banks - this is La France, after all, non?

It turns out that Monday's global markets were almost correct on the rescue bill, judging by their early morning declines. Almost. Trouble is, the markets only felt that the crisis rescue bill - as written - would not quite be the sough-after cure for the frozen credit and overpriced housing markets. Little did they know that the bill was never going to see the light of day, and that it was going to die early, and of unnatural causes, falling at the feet of bickering Republicans and Democrats before it ever made it out of Congress. In a nutshell, Main Street USA told Wall Street to drop dead. Drop, it did. And then some. 777 points by the close. Try to put some lipstick on that one.

A capsize of Poseidon proportions highlighted the biggest-ever drop in the Dow, an $11.50+ cratering in crude oil, and a complete meltdown in all commodities (but gold) on global slowdown fears, all contributed to a hyper-chaotic day in the markets. Gold acquitted itself quite honorably and stepped into its safe-haven combat boots as the lone standout in precious metals. Next up, the probability that currency markets will see an intervention, and that regulatory agencies step into the mess and eithe guarantee assets or take a giant blowtorch to the frozen credit markets with measures other than those that were built into the failed rescue package.

Yesterday was a day of panic, and panics usually does not yield very sustainable moves, let alone pretty results (see stocks) in the short-term. To wit, gold was off $21 at the start of today's session in New York, trading at $882 an ounce. Early action looked to be the mirror image of yesterday's patterns. Gold dropped while oil rose. The consistency in declines was still reserved to white metals. Silver lost 16 cents to $12.92 while platinum shed $38 more to reach $1022 and palladium fell $9 to 204. Gold ought not to have given up its nice gains from Monday, and it ought to have retained its momentum and continued higher on the back of yesterday's gains. Why? There is still plenty of fear to go around until such time as some kind of revised package is born and offered for consideration -say, before the weekend. In the interim, the Jewish New Year will postpone any such events by at least a day or two.

Stabilization means safer havens. Safer havens mean a lessened need for safe-haven holdings. All of which mean that today's early declines in the sole precious metal to survive and prosper during yesterday's financial cyclone (if we ever see the word "tsunami" being used again, we will stage a revolt) are fairly justified. The one asset that no one thought would be the recipient of all of this attention - the US dollar - is bouncing along at 78.20 on the index and rejecting the rumours of its demise - rumours that were quite exaggerated. Does this mean that all is well? Certainly not. Does it mean that we will somehow get through this and manage to still ? Very likely.

There is fear and loathing all over Main Street, Wall Street, and Capitol Hill but there are also those who are calling this tempest one of teapot-sized magnitude. Irwin Kellner at Marketwatch chimes in and tries to inject a dose of sobering caffeine into the drama that the media wasted no time in assigning scary superlatives to:

" We are nowhere near a depression, so let's stop talking ourselves into one.

Spiro Agnew's words of the Nixon era ring true today. The politicians, pundits and, yes, the press, are nattering nabobs of negativism. For example, in recent weeks, the broadcast and the print media have filed stories replete with scare words. You don't even have to look at the tabloids to see what I mean.

The front page of the New York Times recently described what it called "chaos" in the financial markets.

Not to be outdone, most of the first section of The Wall Street Journal one day last week was devoted to articles describing the "spreading crisis" in our economy.

And both newspapers have run stories using the word "depression" more times than I care to count.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am not saying things aren't serious out there, but another Great Depression? I don't think so.

If you look at the data, you will see more differences than similarities between the 1930s and today:

In the crash of 1929 the Dow Jones industrials plunged 40% in two months; this time around it has taken a year to fall 22%.
The jobless rate jumped to 25% by 1933; it is little more than 6% today.
The gross domestic product shrank by 25% during the early 1930s; it is up over 3% during the past year.
Consumer prices fell by about 30% from 1929 to 1933; and the last time I looked they were still rising.
Home prices dropped more than 30% during the Depression vs. about 16% today.
Some 40% of all mortgages were delinquent by 1934 compared with 4% today.
In the 1930s, more than 9,000 banks failed compared with fewer than 20 over the past couple of years.
Remember also it was policy errors, not the stock market crash, that caused the Great Depression:

Instead of increasing the money supply, the Federal Reserve of that era reduced it by one-third.
Instead of lowering taxes, Herbert Hoover raised them.
And to channel whatever demand was left into U.S.-made goods, the government enacted the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act to keep out foreign products; this only provoked our trading partners to do the same.
Add to this today's automatic stabilizers such as unemployment insurance and Social Security, the FDIC to insure bank deposits and circuit breakers to keep stocks from falling too quickly, and you can see why this is not a depression in any way shape or form.

While I am at it, I would like to take issue with the almost ubiquitous use of the word "bailout" to describe the government's rescue package.

Folks, this is not a bailout of anyone, not Wall Street, not Main Street, and certainly not the so-called "fat cats." It's an infusion of liquidity, designed to unclog the financial markets. In doing so, it will benefit everyone, business and consumers alike.

Also, the $700 billion bandied about will not be immediately handed over to the Treasury secretary; he will simply have a line of credit, similar to what the typical business might have.

Finally, this package may not even cost $700 billion. For that matter, it may wind up costing nothing. It all depends on the price the government pays for these distressed assets and what it winds up selling them for."

A survey of gold gurus over in Kyoto at the LBMA summit reveals that most of them expect only modest gains from the yellow metal in the coming year. While allowing for one more spike in prices related to a possible worsening of the already bad crisis we are living through, those surveyed saw gold at about an average of $958 per ounce, fourteen months from now. In addition, they linked any such values being achieved and maintained on scared investors running to the gold umbrella. Without them in the picture, gold would have to contend with surging scrap supplies and evaporating fabrication demand - not a formula that makes for four-digit price tags. Quick, someone send these folks some hate e-mail for being 'bearish.' What do they know? They are only gold gurus.

Happy New Year. Who knows what 5769 might bring. We wish for good health and capital preservation for everyone.

Jon Nadler
Senior Analyst
Kitco Bullion Dealers Montreal

 

[LOR]

Quotes from MD&A

This was posted on the NOT board

a few quotes from the MD&A
Posted by: QQ_Girl on September 30, 2008 11:53AM

posted on Sedar today... QQ


The Company is actively drilling and working to define and further delineate its nickel-copperplatinum group metal and chromium discoveries at the Double Eagle Project. The Company is planning to continue drilling at the site of its Eagle One nickel-copper-pgm discovery for associated deposits along what management believes is a magmatic conduit that could host other similar sulphide bodies. Noront announced the filing of an NI 43-101 Technical Report and resource estimate on the Eagle One Deposit in August 2008. At Eagle Two, a second nickel-copper-pgm discovery, the Company has drilled to a depth of approximately 450 metres and continues to encounter shear hosted sulphide mineralization.

Noront is also actively drilling to define the dimensions of its two recent chromite discoveries at Blackbird One and Blackbird Two, and over time will move to other nearby geophysical anomalies to test for the presence of additional occurrences. Noront will also be drilling anomalies identified elsewhere on its claims in the Ring of Fire area in joint venture with its various partners. The Company?s overall strategy is to concentrate its efforts primarily on defining the relative scale of its current discoveries and on its most promising geophysical targets.

In addition to Noront?s own discoveries, early drilling by other companies in the area is further identifying the presence of massive chromite bands, leading the company to believe that this area has the potential to hold a world class occurrence of chromite.

Noront?s focus is shifting away from simply moving assets to a prospective stage, with a view to attracting third parties interested in participating financially or otherwise in the early development of Noront?s recent discoveries. The Company is fully engaged in exploring and developing the Double Eagle Project as well as the rest of the Ring of Fire and in continuing to add to its already extensive land position in the Ring of Fire area through option agreements and other arrangements. To support this effort the company has recruited a number of professionals to fulfill the rolls of Chief Financial Officer, Vice President Legal and Corporate Affairs, Chief Geologist, Exploration Manager and attendant support staff and field exploration personnel.

Management?s intent is to expand Noront?s controlling interest in additional prospects related to Ring of Fire area. Over the next year, management of Noront anticipates being able to separate its assets that are outside the Ring of Fire area so as to finance and manage them distinctly from Noront?s primary Double Eagle properties.

Please take the time to go and read the whole MD&A - it is an awesome summary of everything right up to date and holds many encouraging words....

QQ

 

[LOR]

Tuesday morning thoughts from TC

Good morning. Overseas this morning the major Asian markets are mixed this morning. The Hang Seng in China is up .76% and the Nikkei in Japan is down 4.12%. The unexpected rejection of the $700 billion bailout plan, by the US lawmakers, has sent Japanese investors scrambling out of equities and into the safety refuge of government bonds. Global money markets are frozen, even as central banks are pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into them, fuelling fears that companies may face funding difficulties and that in turn would hurt the overall economies. In Europe the major indices are mixed, banking stocks are showing renewed strength. Investors are talking about expectations that the US Fed will make a surprise rate cut, to shore up investor confidence until they they can regroup and have another vote on a new and improved bailout plan. European investors are also talking that the European Central Banks will have an emergency rate easing meeting, sometime this week. On the economic calendar we get the Chicago PMI numbers at 9:45, followed by the Consumer Confidence numbers at 10 am. The early futures numbers are pointing to a very positive opening for the US indices. George Bush is expected to make a statement on a new rescue/bailout plan at 8:45 this morning. What a difference a day makes. Perhaps a bottom is in after yesterdays capitulation day in the North American indices?

Back in McFaulds Lake, on a day of record losses for the Canadian indices yesterday, NOT's share price couldn't avoid the trend. Investors capitulated and pushed NOT's share price down to a new 52 week low. At one point the share price dropped to a low of $1.30, but rebounded quickly to close at $1.58, down only 6.51% for the day. However, looking at the chart of NOT we can see the stock has been in an ugly downtrend for months now. The failure of NOT to break above it's 13(MA)and use it as support instead of resistance is showing no signs of turning around anytime soon. For today NOT's chart is showing support at $1.14 with $1.90 being resistance. However the real resistance for NOT is at $1.74, it's 13(MA). Until NOT can break above this point and close above it, it is extremely risky to be invested in this stock.

I have been reading other forums that follow NOT and the subject of doing DD is often the topic. So I thought I would wade into this topic also. For instance, anyone that talks about NOT, in anything but a bullish pump, pump tone on Agoracom, is instantly called a basher and the post is rebutted by the permabulls. The poster is told he/she doesn't have a clue what he/she is talking about. The rationale the permabull uses is that he has done his DD, only a fool can't see NOT's share price will soon be going to the moon. Readers are told by the permabull don't sell your shares, what will happen if NOT releases a news release and the stock takes off and leaves you behind. Look at the money you will lose. The permabull never talks about the money you will lose if you don't use proper money management techniques and blindly ride the stock down in share price, to the point your losses are so bad, you can't get out. To the permabull, why does it matter if the stocks share price goes down, he the permabull has done his DD and it is only a matter of time before NOT's share price, will take off to the moon and you will be sorry you weren't on for the ride when it happens. Many investors fall for this, I have done my DD story from the permabulls. They are now sitting as bagholders of NOT, trapped into the stock, from much higher share prices and now can only sit in horror as the stock slides further and further into the red for them.

So I have to question the permabull. Have you really done your DD on NOT? Or have you only looked at one side of the equation and you are using this I have done my DD story, to try and rationale your reason for being a bagholder in the stock. If the permabull had truly done his DD on NOT, he would of realized that fundamental analysis(FA) is only one half the story, when doing DD on any stock. He would realize that technical analysis(TA) is just as important as the FA that he has done. Doing TA would of told him where the support and resistance points are on the stock. He would of done his research and known where the fibonacci retracements points where. He would of known the points where the stock had broken below support and had a clear exit strategy to protect his investment dollars. He would also have known the point where it was safe to get back into the stock. So I caution you when listening to the permabull, has he really truly done his DD?

Today looks like it will be a very positive opening for the markets. Hopefully NOT can get its share price righted and get a close above it's 13(MA). To me, NOT's share price looks to be way oversold at current share price levels and I expect to see it get a bounce. However, for those looking to take a position in NOT, buying in, once it is trading above it's 13(MA), will lessen your risk considerably. Once NOT is clearly trading above it's 13(MA) you can use it as a support level and put in your mental stop loss point and use proper money management techniques to protect your investment dollars.

FNC was one of the few McFaulds Lake stocks to survive yesterdays bloodbath and it actually closed up for the day. I haven't heard much from the rumour mill how FNC is making out in its current drill program. Now that the PP has closed, it appears all these mysterious leaks we were getting on a daily basis, have ceased. I think most of the leaks were started right from Peter Smith himself. Actually it matters not about the leaks, the important things for investors is that FNC hits with the drill bit. Hopefully we hear of a nickel discovery, none of this chrome stuff.

FWR's share price took a hit yesterday during the capitulation sell off on the TSX-v. I suppose it should have been expected as many investors were sitting in a profitable position. Locking in profits is so rare these days, that it is a testament to FWR that at least some investors had that opportunity yesterday. Hopefully FWR can get its share price righted today after yesterdays bloodbath. Yesterday probably offered a great opportunity for anyone sitting in cash, to pick up some shares at bargain basement prices. The story with FWR, is they are supposedly now drilling some of the hot spots gleamed from the VTEM surveys. McFaulds Lake badly needs a stock like FWR, to come up with a nickel discovery of significance, to get investors interested in the McFaulds story again. The FWR story, is just beginning to unfold with this current drill program. Currently this is one of the few stocks in McFaulds Lake that has caught investors attention, showing speculative fever is still alive in McFaulds.

Currently FNC, FWR and NOT are the stocks that investors are showing the most interest in. We are experiencing one of the roughest times in recent memory for junior mining stocks. It is hard for many investors to show interest in some of these speculative stocks when the financial system as we know it, is in complete disarray. No one knows when this financial crisis will pass. We could have bottomed out already, or we may have years left to get some of these excesses corrected in the global financial system. However one thing is plainly clear, the pool of capital for the junior mining stocks has all but dried up. I would like to again caution investors to do their DD very carefully. Make sure the stocks you are buying in the junior mining sector, have money. Avoid stocks that will be needing to raise capital anytime soon, like the plague. If the stock you buy, can't raise money, being invested in the stock will be dead money. No one will buy these stocks from you, the liquidity will be non existent. The stock certificates in these types of stocks will be nothing more than wallpaper. Some investors don't realize when the markets are in a bear market like they are currently, the last stocks to bounce back, will be the TSX-v stocks. There are far too many good bargains on the bigger, more liquid stocks, for investors to be willing to even touch most of these stocks. Only the very elite group of stocks in the TSX-v will get any attention from investors, anytime soon. I would include NOT in this elite group of stocks, they have discovered something of value. Most of the TSX-v stocks are mere wantabees, they don't actually hold anything of real value. So be very wary of holding anything but the elite group of stocks in the TSX-v exchange is my best advice. JMHO

Best of luck to all McFaulds Lake investors.



Al

 

[LOR]

Junior resource valuations "being thrown out the window"

Junior resource valuations "being thrown out the window"
Posted: September 29, 2008, 3:42 PM by David Pett
Mining
Valuations in the junior resource space are being thrown out the window as the markets crumble to a degree perhaps not seen ever before, says John Lee, portfolio manager with Mau Capital Management LLC.

"What we are witnessing is unraveling systemic risk, debt implosion in its full view except the scale is grandeur than 1930," he says.

He said the main difference between today and 1930 is that the U.S. dollar is not anchored, adding that U.S. dollars will be pumped in to stabilize the system. "Maybe not through the [U.S. bailout] bill but they will be through other means." he says

Mr. Lee adds that the liquidity crunch is sparing very few sectors right now, including his specialty, the junior resource sector. He says junionr resource shares are now trading back to levels of $300 gold and $40 oil.

"With a number of junior stocks I know trading below cash value, in the medium to long term those stocks represent great investment. However, I don't know if today is the climatic bottom," he adds.

David Pett