Babjak - Thanks for the good news on those numbers, especially the current large flow of money back into base metal mining sector!!! This confirms what the analyst Larry Reaugh predicted - that base metal prices were going to soon rise a lot faster than many other analysts were predicting. I summarized what he said in a post yesterday at 8:49 a.m., but will paste it below for those who missed it:

Here is a quote from analyst Larry Reaugh of the Reaugh Group re: the inevitable quick return of high base-metal prices:

"The majority of the forecasters on commodities today are predicting a several-year bear market in the prices of metal commodities across the board. My fundamentalist point of view, resulting from hands on research, is the exact opposite of the popular consensus for several reasons."

This analyst has been involved in mining and mining finance for over 45 years, and is intimately acquainted with the history of price cycles for base metals. His observation is that many of the base metal mines that have recently shut down, or been placed on care and maintenance, are mines that were previously idle for a number of years and only came back online in the last year or two during the rise of base metal prices.

In his latest reported (dated Feb. 13, 2009) he concludes that the rapid price deterioration has already started to turn around, and that there will be first a rapid rise in the price of gold and silver (which we are already beginning to see), quickly followed by the rise in the price of most base metals.

He states that many of the major mining companies and institutional investors realize that this is the best opportunity in many decades to acquire new base metal projects that show promise of large, high-grade ore bodies that will be the next big mines to replace the older mines that have been "high-graded" for profit and which are now unable to be profitable with their remaining low grades of ore at present metal prices.

This bodes well for Noront and other companies working in the Ring of Fire. To read his two most recent reports that set forth his analysis and reasons for his conclusions (including the geopolitical risks of continuing to mine in South Africa and many third world countries - which he considers a big factor), you can click on the following:

Reports of Dec. 8, 2008 and of Feb. 13, 2009 are both on the following link:

http://www.reacompanies.com/list