Richard Nemis, chief executive of Noront Resources Ltd., staked out some territory in the James Bay Lowlands about three years ago. He thought it had good potential after De Beers Canada Inc. and a pair of junior miners, Spider Resources Inc. and KWG Resources Inc., made some interesting zinc and copper finds nearby.

But the area he really wanted to drill was caught up in litigation, and he didn't get his hands on it until recently. He promised to drill one hole in exchange for getting the land.

He didn't find the zinc he was hoping for in that hole. Instead, he found the mother lode.

"We hit nickel-copper, which we never expected to see," Mr. Nemis, 69, says in an interview from Wawa, Ont., where he is hiring stakers as fast as he can and sending them up to James Bay. "This could be bigger than Voisey's Bay. It's a huge discovery."

The drilling results, which started to emerge six weeks ago and feature massive amounts of copper and nickel sulphides, have astounded the mining industry and made Toronto-based Noront (as in NORthern ONTario) an overnight sensation.

The stock catapulted from pennies to more than $4 a share, and the big boys, such as CVRD Inco and Xstrata PLC, are already inquiring about the deposit. Noront expects one of them to eventually buy the company.

"They all want to come in and kick the tires. We'll get a big major in there to develop it eventually. This thing is getting bigger and bigger," Mr. Nemis says.

Noront's drilling is still in its early stages: Only a dozen holes have been drilled at the Double Eagle project.

But Jean-Francois Tardif, a fund manager at Sprott Asset Management (a major shareholder), calculated the company has already identified about $2-billion in value under the ground. He also pointed out that some of the drill holes have values of far more than US$1,000 per ton.

"Some mines are profitable at US$15 or US$20 per ton," he says."This would be massively profitable if it was being mined. The grade is just unbelievable."

If the discovery does turn out to be the next big find, it will be bought by one of the big players and put into production. But, meantime, hundreds of thousands of hectares of land surrounding the find are up for grabs, and there is a mad rush by junior miners to get their hands on it.

More than 100,000 hectares have been staked in the James Bay Lowlands in just six weeks.

Kirk McKinnon, chief executive of MacDonald Mines Exploration Ltd., figures it could be as much as 200,000. Nothing in Ontario compares since the diamond exploration boom in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and the Hem-lo gold discovery in the early 1980s.

At least 10 junior companies are already there, and more land is being staked every day.

"When Noront stock was first halted, the rumours started flying around," Mr. McKinnon says. "We sent a helicopter out [to James Bay] that day and started staking the next day. We took a chance, but that's what staking is all about."

MacDonald and its joint-venture partners have already staked more than 60,000 hectares.

The remarkable thing about this staking rush is that it is happening in one of the most isolated areas in the province. The discovery is about halfway up the west side of James Bay and 150 kilometres inland to the west. The only way to reach it is by helicopter, and the only community anywhere close is Webequie, a tiny aboriginal reserve about 50 km away.

The formerly desolate region is now bustling with helicopters and prospectors flying in and out.

"I've heard it described as busy as Toronto airport, with all the airplanes flying around," says Brian Atkinson, resident geologist in Timmins with the Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines. His phone is ringing off the hook with people looking for property in the Lowlands.

But it remains a very difficult place to drill. There is a lot of water and no exposed mineralization on the ground's surface. The mapping of the region is also very limited; the companies are mostly working off of old government maps, and a lot of the geophysical work has to be done in the helicopters.

Geologists, essentially, have nothing on the ground to work with.

As a result of that, and the fact that exploration is still in its very early stages, it is impossible to know exactly how big this discovery is.

"We don't know how long the thing is, and we don't know how deep it goes," says Bill Nielson, a geologist on MacDonald's board of directors. "We don't even know what direction it's going in at this point in time. It could just be a few million tons [of ore]. Or it could be 30 million."

Noront is hoping for the latter. The company believes its shares are grossly undervalued, and has hired financial advisor IBK Capital Corp. to figure out how to maximize value.

IBK is already comparing the stock's recent performance to Robert Friedland's Diamond Fields Inc. shortly after it found Voisey's Bay. That company eventually sold for US$4.3-billion.

"It is probably the biggest new discovery in Canada in the last 10 years," Mr. Nemis says. "That's how big it is. It's important." He pauses. "Very important."

pkoven@nationalpost.com