We have heard a lot of pros and cons regarding the latest PP.

Very bullish to see it filled so quickly, with a confirmation update tomorrow ?

What was the build-up to the situation we are now experiencing ?

Noront discovered Eagle 1 with a massive share price appreciation.

Noront discovered Eagle 2 with initial share price appreciation but quick fall-back.

Noront discovered Blackbird Chromite deposits with NO share price effect.

Noront discovered AT12 Nickel deposit with NO share price effect.

Noront discovered Eagle 1 “deep extension” in 2008 with NO share price effect (which is still very surprising).

Noront discovered Thunderbird Vanadium / Titanium / Iron Ore deposit with NO share price effect.

In fact, during the last 4 events the share price more or less headed in one direction only : DOWN !

This was mainly due to the general market collapse for exploration companies on the TSX-Venture Exchange over the last 12 month.

And there was this internal company issue of a proxy fight with Hedge Funds and the replacement of the existing CEO Richard Nemis with subsequent changes to various positions within the company.

But what has Noront always done and never stopped during these challenging times ?

DRILLING !

Although drill results were not always published in a timely manner for whatever reason, resulting in an even more challenging situation for (especially retail) investors, we could see that this company “lead the charge in the Ring of Fire” in order to find enough valuable material underground to turn this area into the “Next Big Canadian Mining Camp” !

And now we are “King of the Ring” and have found a ”Nest of Eagles” deeper down !

It is a little bit amusing to hear that the well respected Prof. Mungall suggested to drill deeper at Eagle 1 but found his proposal rejected due to enormous costs of a deep-drill hole (approx. a quarter of a million dollars for 1000 metres !).

Now they can´t spend enough money to drill deep at Eagle 1, using even additional $ 25 million from the latest PP !

Obviously someone was listening to Prof. Mungall´s theories of deeper mineralized levels at Eagle 1 and the decision to drill a deep hole outside of Eagle 1 to detect the depth extend with sophisticated down-hole equipment turned out to have hit the mineralized “deep zones” (now called “lenses”) .

Again with “spectacular” grades over “spectacular” lengths (not everybody on this forum would support this view) !

And after a long period of time with languishing share price and various drilling news that didn´t seem to re-ignite the flame, we finally saw excitement around Noront Resources again.

And rightly so, if all the rumours about step-out holes at Eagle 1 turn out to be true.

But we have to wait for that confirmation.

Coming back to my initial point about the PP timing.

As we know, “hunting deep” is a very expensive way to discover minerals in the ground.

At $ 250.000 a shot you don´t want to miss a lot of times.

If you drill 10 holes to 1000 metres (or 7 to 1500 metres) you will have spent $ 2.5 million and that would have been a third of Noront´s original 2009 drilling budget for the whole Ring of Fire area !

So even if we had $ 20 million + in the kitty a couple of month ago, these funds would have been decreased in next to no time in a “hunting deep scenario” !

And although we were probably waiting for more good news (step-out holes) that might give the share price another push, it was good to get money NOW in order to carry on with an accelerated program without delays.

Don´t get me wrong, but this will definitely NOT be the last PP of Noront, especially if we want to mine it ourselves as Wes keeps telling us even on BNN today (which IMHO won´t happen).

But I´m sure the next one will be at a much higher price !

Finally, I think the most bullish information apart from rumours about step-out hits are:

- the re-direction of the other available drills to Eagle 1 and

- the purchase of one (or more) “deeper drills” and

- to get a $20 M PP filled so quickly and easily (being approached rather than asking for money) and

- to spent most of the increased budget on Eagle 1 (85c per $).

Very interesting times ahead (again) !

FANTOMAS