First of all, a big thank you to Irish, Hoov, SudburyNorth, Jim Voisin & Corvette, for letting me tag along to the parties. You're right, you do learn more at these.

We hadn't been in there 15 minutes, when a guy walks up and plants himself at the same table as us. I look at his name badge and is says Ministry of something (can't remember if it was Resources), from Newfoundland/Labrador. I had to ask, so I blurt out, ahhheeeyuck, I guess you know a little about Voiseys Bay.

The man says, uh, oh ya....and then starts talking to Hoov, lol.... Okay fine. I did better at listening than talking yesterday. Anyways, him and Hoov went on for a while.

Then another guy, wanting to take a load off his feet, sits down next to where we had reconvened and he's a Money guy from London, England. Another conversation ensues, with the Hoov leading the way.

If you've ever seen Larry in action, it's a treat to watch. His enthusiasm for everything he's saying is refreshing. Clearly he knows what he's talking about and everyone that I've personally seen talking to him, recognize that instantly.

So, I tried to copy his method, without the knowledge....doesn't work. :-(

Before I talk about what I learned, I must mention the first party. It was a presentation about Rare Earth Metals, with Kaiser as the guest speaker. That guy's pretty good by the way. Knows his stuff. NOT needs to find some of this Rare Earth stuff. And I don't mean some old 70's LP's from the band of the same name. Anyways, it was an interesting listen. But the best of that party HAD TO BE the two absolutely gorgeous blond girls at the door. After my 7th attempt at asking them out....okay, that was just in my mind. My ego couldn't have take their laughter, lol.

Okay, so I talked to Wes. He liked my ROF leather jacket (thanks Malcome) and the NOT hat. I was good advertising. I asked about the FN-opod and I got nothing more than we already know of course. But what I did get was that I believe that he's very satisfied that NOT has suppported the FN blockade. Noront's been honorable and respectful of the FN concerns. He did say that the FN came to NOT with their concerns and as it involved other companies in the ROF, it was difficult to assist the FN. So the only alternative and only bargaining chip the FN had, was a blockade until their demands are at least in a planned discussion phase. Some of this is my interpretation and some is from Wes. But you know most of this already.

I saw NUMA in action. Pretty cool stuff. You can go to all kinds of screens - magnetic, cores, drill plans, etc. You can see a core wet or dry, focus in to a spot on any selected core that was inputed. Naturally, being a long, I asked for, you guessed it, hole # 07-05, the glory hole that RN & JH found. Wasn't inputed as yet. Crap. How about # 07-27. Nope. So I asked for # 09-70 and of course it's in there. I said that must be a lot of work to input all that data and the guy said, ya I know, it's my job. He said he'd get the 07-05 hole in there at some point.

But anyhooo, it appears to be a handy tool, that could be used to pinpoint drilling or just be a terrific new way to show all your stuff. I asked if anyone else had done anything like this and I was told that Microsoft had never heard of this type of an application for the mining industry. This is a first. A new technology. The stuff you see on some those hi-tech action movies, even some Bond movies. I think it's cool and NOT did it first.

I visited a bunch of other booths, some of which were Spider (talked to Neil for a little while), BMK, Tribute, GNH and many others unrelated to the ROF. I walked more than I would, playing 3 rounds of golf. But a very enjoyable experience.

And lastly, I had the pleasure of meeting George & Paul, from Agoracom. I thanked them for their support of the two golf tournaments we've had (and I'll be looking for your support again this year? ...he asked nicely...). Nice guys.

strato-pdac