In an article titled, Copper In Gold Hunt, of yesterday's date, a writer for Mineweb who keeps track of global flows of investments into various funds (Barry Sergeant), writes:

"Over the past month, investors have switched heavily from listed gold and silver stocks into names specialising in copper, zinc, uranium and nickel."

As for the rally that is beginning in nickel stocks, Mr. Sergeant says:

"A strong recovery in listed nickel stocks would not be possible without good price action from Norilsk, the world's biggest producer. The Norilsk stock price has bounced up by 66%, but remains just more than 80% off its highs, illustrating in part also the merciless price destruction sustained by Russian mining stocks generally.

Among other larger nickel names, strong stock price recoveries are noted for FNX Mining, Mirabela Nickel, Talvivaara Mining, Independence Group, and, in particular, Jien Nickel. For Aneka Tambang, the biggest nickel producer after Norilsk, Vale, BHP Billiton, and Xstrata, there has been a more modest recovery, with a 40% bounce from its low price. "

This flow of investment funds back into base metals miners is good news for explorers and developers like Noront, because when a rally develops in a metal category, it often begins with major mining companies, and then flows over into the junior sector. Today's significant gain in our share price may just be the beginning of bigger gains soon to come.