Thus when Financial Post reporter Peter Koven wrote the first meaningful mainstream media coverage of Noront's discovery on October 13, 2007, the headline "Is this Voisey's Bay II?" and quotes by Noront CEO Richard Nemis that "this could be bigger than Voisey's Bay" bordered on the ludicrous. Was Nemis just an incorrigible old-style promoter enjoying his last hurrah? The shorts have certainly thought this to be the case, and while I myself felt there was a good possibility that this discovery could scale to a world class level that would kick off a resounding Great Canadian Area Play, a logical possibility that has not yet been ruled out by systematic exploration, making such sure thing predictions struck me as mere wishful thinking.

What changed my thinking was a total magnetic field map and an electromagnetic conductor map involving HLEM data processed by Scott Hogg & Associates on behalf of Fancamp Exploration Inc (FNC-V: $2.06) which owns a group of claims whose edge is about 200 metres from the discovery. In an effort to help my readers appreciate this information I have scanned the hardcopy, rotated it to give it a north-south orientation, highlighted the key geophysical feature, and annotated the claim block ownership. The EM map above shows a distinct EM conductor (highlighted in yellow) starting in the discovery area (circled) on the claim block Noront acquired from Greenstone/Condor in a southwesterly direction for about 300 metres before it bends south, and then curves back into a southwesterly direction for 2,000 metres before it peters out. If the mineralization Noront has discovered is associated with this conductor, we are dealing with a tonnage footprint in the tens of millions. Of course Noront will have to confirm through drilling that this mineralization is indeed associated with the longer conductor, and not just a short conductor that happens to adjoin the long one that might consist of the dreaded graphite. And of course assays will have to demonstrate to what extent similar grades prevail within this longer conductor. These are some big "ifs", but what is important is that these "ifs" do exist, something I was not aware of until Monday afternoon, and which I highly doubt Brent Cook was aware of when he analyzed the information so far disclosed by Noront. In the context of this geophysical information I think there is good reason to hold one's breath as Noront's drill rigs probe the length of the conductor.