This might seem a little far-fetched at first glance (but only to those who don't realize the magnitude of Noront's discoveries at the Ring of Fire, and what drove the price of our stock to $7.40). I've been pondering this since this morning when we jumped up over 20% on high volume.

There maybe some negotiations going on that leaked out. There may be some drill cores that were so rich in nickel/platinum/palladium that a fairly knowledgeable member of the drill crew recognized the core as bonanza grade and phoned his relatives. There may be guys at the assay labs that have just assayed some cores Noront sent them that are "off the charts", and they've leaked info.

However, something else is very 'coincidental' (that finally occurred to me). And I'm not saying it is this one 'coincidence' that is the cause of the rapid uptick in price and volume. It may be this in combination with other factors.

As we all know, Noront has hit grades of nickel, platinum, palladium of such high grades and over such long lengths that they are unprecedented in the history of Canadian mining (maybe the world - Norilsk, in Russia, would maybe be either 2nd place, or might beat us on some of their early grades, from what I've studied). The fact that Noront, a junior explorer rocketed to $7.40/share is evidence enough that what we hit was historically incredible, and definitely put Noront "on the radar" of many investors and major mining concerns around the world at that time.

Of course, we soon had the revelations of the "Mortgage Backed Securities" that were packaged up and sold as "investments" to naive buyers, and when the "overbuilt" real estate situation finally became noticed (and "buyers" who were underqualified could not pay their mortgages and started defaulting) we had a major economic time bomb go off, and everything went to hell in a hand basket (as they say).

However, what we also know is that metals like nickel, copper, platinum, palladium tend to do much better when an economy is in good health, and especially expanding. These are "industrial" metals and used for bridges, pipelines, electrical grids, etc.

A new perspective was "confirmed" in the minds of many today, I believe, that starts to make people think that this economic recession is getting ready to turn around. It was only "confirmed" today (in the minds of many - not me), but was hinted at last week.

The banking situation in all countries, but especially the U.S. has been under scrutiny and considered crucial to whether the economy will continue to decline, or might turn around. Last week (Thursday - right before Good Friday holiday), Wells Fargo Bank had a news release saying that they were not only losing money, or struggling, or facing potential collapse - but, to everybody's surprise, they were going to have 1st quarter earnings of $3 Billion dollars. They even said they were going to pay back the bailout funds there were given. Well, the result was that the Dow Jones Industrial average jumped 250 points.

Citigroup, another of the major banks, said that they were profitable in the latter part of 2007 and in the first quarter of 2009 (despite receving bailout money from U.S. government intervention) and actually made $8 billion, which solicited a joke from late night comic, Jay Leno.

Then, today, from the other major banking powerhouse, Goldman Sachs (released, allegedly, a day earlier than planned) we hear that they posted more than a $1.8 billion gain, garnering a $3.39 per share profit for shareholders today!

Foreign governments and corporations, and major mining concerns monitor such news, and if it looks to them like there is going to be money available and interested in purchasing things of real value, then they kick into gear, and give the "green light" to their people who specialize in finding and acquiring the most likely candidates for extreme profits in an expanding economy.

That's us, folks - Noront. We didn't get the "No. 1" ranking last year in this category for nothing. Like I said, we've been well publicized. But now "the heat is on" (or at least starting to appear to be rising to many in the investment world). I think these events may be playing a significant role in today's market action re: Noront. (But I'm still not ruling out the possibility of a breakfast meeting between a Chinese delegation and Noront CEO's, or the reception of well-known directors of a major mining concern visiting the Noront office today).