I find it quite interesting that after years on Agora, my post earlier today is the first one that seems to have gotten a lot of people riled up. I personally received negative feedback, my points dropped significantly, and my rating dropped a bit. Not that I care about that, but I have to assume that this indicates that people don't like to hear bad news. Or maybe people think that I'm trying to bash the company.

Let me throw out some information, for further thought:

1. Noront's EIS/EA DRAFT copy was dated/submitted for December 20th, 2013. As you can see, this was a joint federal/provincial submission. Evidence here:

http://norontresources.com/pdf_uploads/EISTableofContents.pdf

2. This is a joint federal/provincial process. A lot of people have been mentioning the approval of the province as being the issue. Is that definitely the case? I seem to recall one of Noront's key personnel mentioning the province in comments in a news story (although not in any official capacity such as a press release). Well, check out this link:

https://www.ceaa-acee.gc.ca/default.asp?lang=en&n=16254939-1

If you scroll down about 40% to the section marked "Timelines" you will see the following:

The following timelines for the government to complete its work are set by CEAA 2012:

• 365 days from the commencement of an environmental assessment by the Agency to the final environmental assessment decision; and
• 24 months for an assessment by review panel from the time of referral to the final environmental assessment decision. The Minister will set project-specific timelines for each phase of the review panel process.

The Minister may extend these timelines for up to three months to enable cooperation with another jurisdiction or because of circumstances that are specific to the project. The federal Cabinet can extend timelines beyond the three months.

So if anyone is thinking that I'm trying to bash the stock, I should point out that I'm merely pointing out some of the information that is impacting my interpretation of when EA/EIS approvals will be forthcoming. So again, to clarify, we may have to wait a while yet.

3. Look further down that same page at the federal/provincial integration section. Specifically:

The Minister of the Environment, if satisfied that the substantive requirements of CEAA 2012 can be met by a provincial process and if that province requests it, must allow for the substitution of the federal environmental assessment process by the provincial process. The Minister of the Environment would make a decision about the project using the environmental assessment report prepared by the province.

The federal Cabinet may exclude a designated project from application of CEAA 2012 if it determines that a province will undertake an equivalent assessment.

Perhaps the province has decided to leave the ball in the federal court. So perhaps this is why Ontario hasn't yet come forth with any approval or public feedback. Perhaps they are waiting on the feds?

Anyway, that's all that I can shed on the situation with respect to my earlier comments today saying that maybe some people are being impatient.

Many of the posters on this board know exactly who I am, through PM's and so on. I'm not shy about keeping my identity private. I'm not bashing the stock or company. I don't even work in the financial sector, and if I didn't believe in the potential of Noront, I wouldn't be reading or posting here. I acknowledge that some readers here are extremely impatient, but I think expectations need to be tempered. Good things come to those who wait. I know many people are tired of waiting (after all, for some of us its more than seven years), but my thoughts about this are to reassure people that the wait is not necessarily an indication of bad news.

That's about all I have to say right now.