Hi All,

I expect to see a string of NRs leading up to the AGM so I thought I would share my adventure today while things are slow.

As many of you know, I spent 10 days in San Francisco a little over a week ago. During my week there, the market collapse started and the likes of Lehman Bros. and Morgan Stanley were toasted in just a matter of days. To wake up the president to make an annoucement over the economy told me that things were really dire. At the end of the week, my conference was over and I needed a road trip.

I have seen all there is to see in San Fran on previous trips, so I decided to see if there were any opportunities to pan for gold in California. Since I caught "gold fever" when Windfall results were announced in December 2006, I thought I would try my hand at finding some nuggets of my own.

So after googling some sites, I learned that just a few short hours away stood a large part of the historical gold rush in the U.S that changed the face of California as we know it. The terms "49ers" and "California Dreaming" came out as a result. In one year, 90,000 people arrived in California to try there hand at hitting gold along the historic Highway 49 (thus the term 49ers). Over the years over 2 Billion in gold was removed from the area and still stands as one of the largest "motherlode" areas around. And they believe only 10% of the gold has been uncovered to date.

So with mapquest map in hand, my father and I headed off to Jamestown where a small group of raggedy old gold dreamers offered gold panning adventures. We arrived in a town that looked the same as it did in the 1850s, though the insides of the old historic buildings were filled with yuppy antique stores, coffee shops, and clothing stores. At the end of the street stood "Gold Prospecting Adventures" where a six foot dummy hung from the second floor by a lassoo. A warning I guess to those who try to steal a prospector's gold or claims :)

The inside shop looked like a mix between an antique store and a disney gift shop. All sorts of books on gold mining and history stood on one wall. Under glass were nuggets of gold I assume they had recently found. On the walls stood newspaper articles of people who as recently as 1993 found 1.3 million dollars in placer gold (placer being gold that has seperated from its source and travelled down river).

After checking out the tours, we decided we would not have time for gold panning and the next stop on the road trip so we decided to forgo our planned riches and head toward the next destination.

While the opportuntity at Jamestown offered a chance at some real gold, the next opportunity offered something much more valuable. This being knowledge.

So we headed an hour north along Highway 49 and travelled through some of the most historic towns in gold history. Places like Sonora, Angel's Camp, San Andreas, and Jackson.

Our final destination was Sutter Creek close to where the action all started. Here 8 historic mines existed along a ten mile stretch that saw millions of ounces of gold recovered. It was there that we found "Sutter Gold Mine" which dated back to the 1850s.

My heart started to beat quicker as we turned the convertible (if you are going on a road trip then you have to go in style) into the side road that led to the mine. A few hundred metres later we found the gravel parking lot and wondered if the trip had been worth it. All that existed in our eye's view was a lot of rusty old mining equipment and a small building made out of sheet metal. Having driven 4 hours to get to this point, I really hoped this would live up to its billing.

So we walked into the metal building to find a huge giftshop containing everything one needed related to mining and minerals. Vials of gold and silver leafing, rocks that could be split to find some kind of quartz like treasure inside, prospecting maps, teddy bears, books, and even some core samples from the property previous drilling.

I talked to the young girl working the cash desk and she mentioned that the tour runs every hour and last one hour. So we popped down $17 bucks a piece and waited the 40 minutes until the next tour. That time was spent reading the newspaper articles posted on the walls from the 1800s talking about bonanza finds and the deaths of miners due to fires and explosions. Before we knew it we were in line with six other people waiting to load a diesel tram for our trip to the mines.

Our guide was a fine young man in his 20s with an incredible mining knowledge given he wasn't a miner. After having us all fitted with hard hats and warning us about the two drop rule (if your hat leaves your head twice while in a mine he is legally obligated by some mining rule to return you to the surface. Not sure if this was true or not but it did stress me out when my father's hard hat fell off while he lifted his head to take a picture of the ceiling).

What really took me about the area is how plain it was. It was not a mountain area. More like a desert with hills and a valley with a river running through it. Much like Drumheller for those who live out West.

We rode in the buggy and made our first stop. A historic 1920s mine shaft that was blocked off. Turns out they drilled this one in the early 1900s a total of 300 feet straight down and then stopped. Years later modern drilling took this 100 feet further and 100s of thousands of ounces were found. It really hit me that men in the past would spent there lives drilling into the ground without the modern technologies companies like Noront uses today. VTEMs and EM surveys ... They essentially dug holes and hoped to hit something. How great it is that Noront has access to these technologies to save years and $$$.

The next stop changed my investing life as suddenly it became clear why my investment in Noront was so valuable and why I have complete faith in it. Like many on here, I do not come from a geologic or mining background. I have a business background and enough knowledge of gold to be dangerous with money. When windfall first hit, I did not know that 1800 grams per tonne of gold (52 ounces) over 15 feet was a good find. It was not until I did some DD and learned that 1/3 of an ounce over 12 feet at $400 an ounce pricing is good enought to bulk mine an area.

So the buggy entered a new area and there stood a 18 x 16 foot hole into the side of the hill that looked exactly like the entrance to the ramp at Windfall. We entered the hole and drove 1500 feet (500 metres) down into the earth. Along the way we would stop and look at the sides of the tunnel where storage areas existed. In them were equipment used to take rock out of the tunnel. Very heavy equipment that looked like a combination back hoe and dump truck, just a 1/4 in height.

Along the way the guide talked about the ventilation tube that ran from the entrance to the bottom. There were also electrical and water conduits. While the ramp ran 3000 feet down, we were only allowed to go half way as they were drilling out the end of the ramp. It turns out that a safety room is needed every 1500 feet and that is where we made our stop. We were now a total of 500 feet below the surface.

Inside the room we sat while the young guide explained how drilling has changed since the pick and hammer of the early days to the new methods used today. I asked him about diamond drilling and he said that they did not use it as it was very expensive as the bits only last a couple of hours before needing to be changed. They use a metal bit that can be machined back into form every four to five hours.

Along with drill methods came blasting methods. In the early days they used black gun powder until nitroglyceryn (TNT) was used. The men who used to carry the sticks down to the blasting sections (we are talking way back in time folks so don't worry) used to have a rope attached to them as at some point during the day they would pass out from nitro poisoning. They would carry the poor chap to the top and the next day he would have a headache and start again. Today, they use a form of fertilizer explosive which will leave a hole about 1 metre by two metres into the rock.

After the briefing we began our ascent into the off shots where the gold was dug out. Along the way they had some old equipment on display that was used to describe the history of actually mining the gold. One particular piece of interest was called the "widow maker." Those who used it to used to breath in the resultant silica particles which would over time turn their lungs into glass. While they took the job knowing the risks, they still did it as they had a family to support. The average life span was two years.

Of interest also was the fact that they no longer use wood to hold up the walls. Turns out wood gives off a gas that over time will explode. Thus the cause of all the early mining disasters. Today they drill 8 foot holes and fill them with metal pipe and cap it. This provides support that is ten times stronger than the previous beams. The holes look to have been made every five feet or so.

Along the off shoot he showed us some visible gold on the ceiling that has not been drilled out. I asked him how they knew where to drill and he said that they follow the quartz. Suddenly a light went off in my head and the reason for the Windfall ramp suddently made sense. Surface drilling can only show you so much when it comes to gold. The quartz veins branch off in different directions and these are followed until the motherlode is found. In one ares of the off-shoot, they had a hole where thousands of ounces of gold were found.

Along the way I noticed some green slimy rock on the wall. I asked what this was and he said that it was copper. When water and air hit copper, it turns green in color. I asked if they had nickel in this mine and he said he did not know. The mining at this ramp has ceased in 1993 with the downturn in the price of gold. Commodities back then were also probably low so it made no sense to drill it then either. It has only the last couple of months that they have decided to reopen the mine soon. US Gold sold 50% of the rights to the mine to an Australian equities group (RGM?) for 6 million dollars. The other 50% is owned by Sutter Gold Mining out of Vancouver.

After visiting a number of shoots, were were now 4 stories above our original starting point. It turns out that the ramp is dug below where they think the gold it so that they can drop the blasted out rock down onto the ramp area. With this method they rely on gravity to move the rock rather than having to drag it out using tracks. Smart guys.

After descending four floors on a metal staircase, our tour was over and we ascended with the buggy back to the entrance of the ramp. In one hour I could now completely visualize and understand what was currently happening at Windfall Lake. What was a topic being discussed on a board was now fully real to me.

At the top I pondered how strange it was that a company would offer tours into their ramp. It is the only mine that I know of that does this and I feel fortunate that I had this opportunity. Something inside tells me that once production is fully ramped back up, the tour part of the this property will be closed for safety reasons and possible never be offered again. In this sense I was able to see, smell, touch, understand a true mining ramp.

Back at the shack I returned my hard hat and asked one last question. Have you ever heard of a company that found 52 ounces of gold per tonne over 15 feet? His draw just dropped. Those numbers were unheard of he told me and were better than anything they have found via "lode" mining in the area. He could not believe it was true and that I must have had my numbers wrong.

I smiled like a cheshire cat and then returned to San Francisco knowing that despite the market going to hell that week, I had a good investment on my hands. Even if the ring of fire never saw the light of day, Windfall was enough for me.

Keep the faith everyone. We have the goods!

M1.