I've received several messages from people asking me why I thought the stock price was down and whether I was concerned, etc. I just responded to another one of these, and decided to go ahead and post the general thoughts of my response here, for whatever it might be worth.

I think the price has gone down due to general market drop, along with funds needing liquidity (i.e., investment funds, like those in which peoples retirement funds are invested) and selling everything, as well as some shorting still going on. In fact, the shorting might even be worse now, since over 900 American stocks that are "financially related" have been put on a "no short sales" list some weeks ago, and the people who want to short stocks have fewer stocks to short, and thus more money with which to short fewer stocks.

There is also the story going around that industrial metals will drop in price if we have a big recession or depression. The argument goes along the lines of there were be fewer people buying cars, fewer people traveling on jets, fewer people buying new houses, etc., and therefore the demand for copper, nickel, chrome, etc., will drop precipitously.

So, I think those kinds of reports are having some effect also. However, I believe the reports are wrong and don't really understand the fundamental situation. The demand to bring more oil and gas online in this country and other countries is going to require lots of infrastructure.

China and India will continue their economic development and expansion of the middle class, even if not at the breakneck speed of the last 5 years, and thus will require these industrial metals for infrastructure. America's aging bridges, dams, and other infrastructure is in need of repair and replacement, and that need will grow; as well as need for new infrastructure due to growing population.

Also, the fact that the above-ground supply of industrial metals like copper, nickel and chrome, has started to lag behind demand, and that the estimated number of mines needed to bring supply in line with demand will not be able to be brought online until 5 or 10 years down the road, means we should still have strong need for, and therefore stable to higher prices for, these industrial metals for a long time.

So, while I'm disappointed in the price drop of Noront, I'm still very optimistic about the fundamental value of our stock being much higher than the present market price. I'm also convinced that as we and our neighbors prove up more chromite, nickel, and copper in the ROF, that the price will eventually start going up again. If not simply because of the news, then because one of the big mining companies will eventually want to make a bid for us.

Also, price of gold has held up well, and even improved over these last few weeks. Many of us bought into Noront early on because of the extremely high grades of gold over good widths at the Windfall project. As the ramp continues downward and they start hauling sample ore to the smelter, we may very well find that they've discovered a rich gold mine, in which case the stock price will run up again.

It's nice to have multiple projects and to be going after multiple metals. After the general market conditions settle down, and we start getting more and more assay reports from Windfall and ROF, I believe the stock price will begin to improve. Also, once we have good frozen ground at ROF (around late October/early November), it will be much easier to move equipment around and to get new drills and other equipment hauled in. Drilling should speed up and so should the assay reports. So, I have strong expectations for a rising price this fall and winter. And possibly a huge pop up in price if we make some good gold find at Windfall, and find another one or two large deposits of nickel/copper/PGE's at ROF.