Hi Everyone,

I thought I would chime in here as this is starting to be a conversation that is worth having. At this point the native communities are almost complete their evaluation of what the best East-West route will be. For the most part their preference share most of the route in common with what Noront has proposed in their EA.

It looks as though Noront will be transferring their EA to the province so the process can be continued as a provincial initiative. Noront's work is comprehensive to it will allow the province everthing it needs to spearhead the initiative.

There should be consensus within the next month or two on what the route will be.

There has also been some questions regarding drilling. Drilling is starting and will continue for the coming months. One of the targets is not subject to any challenges due to thawing. One target is however, and considering the winter has not been particularly cold, Noront is under a time crunch here. Drilling is possible at this site if the ground thaws, as anything is possible with money but the drilling may be cut short on that target depending on the rate of the thaw.

IMO management was successful in raising enough money for a good drilling campaign.

Regarding the budget, there was no question that the ROF would not be specifically named. The fed's will most likely be contributing $$'s by connecting the native communities to the East-West corridor. The corridor has not even yet been decided. Negotiations have not yet been concluded with the province as of yet. It would be counterproductive to the provincial negotiations for the Federal Goverment to throw another element by promising money at this time.

The province and Matawa should know that if they want some Fed before it's allocated elsewhere, they need to finish up.

As Coutts has said the Federal Government is eager to participate but IMO the Fed's need assurances that an agreement has been made before commiting.

After the province has concluded their agreements with the Matawa, then it will be Noront's turn to work on IBA's for the Nickel operations with the 4 communitied in the immediate area. Some groundwork has already been laid, so I don't see that being a lengthly process.

I forsee the next 2-6 months being an exciting time for NOT longs. Whether you like drill results or are looking some progress on Eagle's Nest there will be something for all.

Bang on Luker.

I know for many Noront longs that last few years since things started to fall apart with the grand McGuinty Cliffs plan have been hard.

Our stock price has suffered and it has been stressful, however the real situation was not negative.

The noise allowed Noront to get Cliff's property for a song.

In the background, Noront continued to progress silently on there own (yes of course permitting has been slow), and now they are well positioned. In fact they are in a very powerful bargaining position with the government and FN.

I don't expect Noront's stock to trade at it's true value immediately, but there is definately things brewing from a stock price perspective. The volumes over the past 5 trading sessions are at levels not seen in years. Noront's true value can be debated, but we can all agree that the current levels are not close to the most recent updated situation.

Noront IMO is now at a place where serious institutional managers can now take a position. Partly due to Franco-Nevada's entrance, partly due to the consolidation, partly due to the government becoming more focused and providing direction.

An unfortunate fact at the moment however is the price of Nickel. The NPV of Eagle's Nest loses approximately 100 million dollars for every $1 nickel is below $9.50. $9.50 is the assumption price of Nickel at production. In my opinion the fundamentals of Nickel will soon be more apparent with China working through their stockpiles and shifting from a net exporter to net importer. Nickel Pig Iron used to be a cheap source of Nickel for China, but the game changed with the Indonesian Ore Ban. I would predict that by the end of the year deficits will begin to show. The price of nickel may start to show in 30-60 days according to some analysts.

Analyst are generally all on the same page with the medium term forcast as few new Nickel mines are coming online, yet Stainless Steel demand grows at 6%+ per year globally.

As for the chromite, I think we will no longer hear a downplay type of talk from Coutts. It was always closer than he made it sound.

Now for the part that excites me most. Drilling! Coutts has alluded (most recently on BNN) that he feels that market via flow-through shares will be tested for the purpose of raising money for drilling. I personally like the idea. Since the last drilling campaign, a lot of surveying and studying has been done by Noront. I think they are confident about where they want to put the drills. Possibly rocket fuel for the SP!

The CEO of Franco-Nevada just joked recently that he would be firing his geologist of new metals were not found on Noront's property. Franco-Nevada's Geo-team probably looks at more Geo surveys than any other corporate team in the world. They are in fact the largest mining royaly company in the work. They bet on companies before the ore comes out of the ground. What better vote of confidence can an investor look for.

Best Regards,

JDR

Hello All,

Typically I keep my post strictly to facts, but here I will offer an opinion that I firmly believe.

The province is moving forward!

It's clear in Michael Gravelle's postion that the EA will move forward on after April 1st.

Has head's up about the deadline is definately a new tone from the government to the FN's and other parties.

The wait is over. The province's has decided and I will give them the benifit of the doubt that they are doing do after some legal consultation.

Consultation with the First Nation is happening and has happen whether or not some of the tribes will acknowledge it.

The EA has been out for years, town halls and discussions have taken place. Members within the community have received training and built knowledge of what life will be like with a mine.

Most recently the announcement at PDAC for funding exmeplifies the consulatation process.

This is consultation. Refusal by the FN to listen or reply does not qualify in my opinion of non-consultation. I will note that there are tribes that have been constructive or at least silent.

Franco-Nevada, Noront, RCF, the Province and Feds have decided to continue to move forward which signals to me that they feel their obligations have been met. The aforementioned parties are all intelligent players (some more intelligent than others) so they don't make moves unless they know what the next steps are.

Now the ball will be put into play soon and it be best for all players to take the field. Shouting from the sidelines is rarely heard by the players once the game gets started.

I am looking forward to upcoming the announcements incoming weeks and months.

GLTA,

JDR

Hello All,

I found and interesting article with the following quote from Chief Martin.

Does he know something we don't know?

“There is some movement now. Noront has been given permission to up their permitting. Now they can actually ask for an RFP (request for proposal) for energy. So that’s good news and so as a result of working with Matawa, we’re saying let’s work on this hydro bid from Quebec to put in a bid together,” Martin said on Monday

See:

http://www.timminspress.com/2015/03/02/road-to-the-ring-of-fire

JDR

Hi Tin Man,

According to Alan's quotes in the published news, he has not discussed the purchasing of the claims yet. I see him as an honest man so I take that at his word.

The purchase of the camp was a shrewd move by Noront.

Cliff's is getting a lot of pressure right now with one of the issues being that they are unfocused and they need to stop spending money on new projects.

Cliff's may have felt that selling the camp would be something they could show their shareholder's that they will not be spending on this project.

The price of the camp will be small from Cliff's persepctive so I can't really see them selling it for the money.

I think Noront saw it as an opportunity and Cliff's used it as something to show it's shareholder's something.

I too hope that it will lead to something more but I don't believe that anything is cooking there at this time.

Just my opinion.

JDR

Hi Keegann,

I respectively agree that at the moment there is no reason for the stock to remain at the present price.

It should be going up!

Reason being is all of the candidates for Premier are touting get this done.

It will be hard for any of them to go back on the many promises they have made.

The price of Nickel is in an upward trend and adding tens of million to the NPV of Eagle's Nest.

I believe the slide today is due to one retail investor getting our in a hurry probably to get in on another play.

I discuss small caps mining with many and their seems to be a lot of pumping and claims of quick money on other stocks.

I fear one of our fellow Noront holders has been inspired (aka pumped) into another stock.

JDR