Noront Resources Ltd. (NOT) slipped one-half cent to 29 cents on 993,000 shares. The company has hired Alan Coutts as its president, replacing interim president Paul Parisotto, who remains a director. Mr. Coutts is relocating from Perth, where he spent the past five years as managing director of Xstrata Nickel's Australasian division. Before that he worked for Xstrata in New Brunswick, managing its Brunswick nickel mine (which closed in March, 2013, after 50 years of operation). The new president begins his job next week. The company is busy trying to complete an environmental assessment for its Eagle's Nest project in Northern Ontario before year-end. Noront has $15-million in working capital. A mine at Eagle's Nest is expected to cost $609-million, or $734-million should neighbour Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. not build its proposed access road.

Cliffs has run into plenty of problems with the Ontario government and the Northern Ontario Indians, who have grown accustomed to many perks since companies started working in the Ring of Fire. Noront has spent millions pleasing the 12 bands surrounding its project. The company's biggest splurge comes at Christmas. For the past three years, former president Wes Hanson travelled to a couple of the reserves dressed up as Santa. There, he sat the local children on his knee and gave them each a wrapped gift, while the company provided a "feast" for the adults. The children, some of whom regularly write to Noront with their Christmas lists, are used to receiving presents. Should Mr. Coutts not carry on Noront's tradition of giving, the company will likely face some trouble in the New Year. Chief Eli Moonias of the Marten Falls First Nation has in the past employed the blockade, or "logistics halt," as Mr. Hanson called it in 2010, when the Indians set up camp on the company's ice-landing strip. The blockade prevented the company from drilling at Eagle's Nest, and pushed its stock down from $2. Fewer tribe members showed up in 2011, following the first Noront Christmas feast. Chief Moonias, however, still arranged a blockade, telling Stockwatch he was not happy with Noront: "These PR programs were thrust to us by Noront, not part of any agreement. If they want to take back their gifts, that's their business to do so. If I brag about my gift, then it no longer is a gift. Gifts are unconditional."

Mr. Hanson left Noront in January. Two months later, he joined Andrew Cheatle and Daniel Danis's Unigold Inc. (UGD) as chief operating officer. Unigold's stock has since fallen from 28 cents. Today, it dropped another one-half cent to seven cents on 166,000 shares. The company is in the middle of a 40,000-metre drill program at its Neita gold property in the Dominican Republic. Mr. Hanson plans to use the drill results to establish a first-ever gold resource. Investors have been waiting patiently for assays, but have seen only one round (on Sept. 3) since June. It was not pleasant: 12 of the 20 drill holes contained no significant mineralization. The company has suspended drilling for six weeks so it can map and sample two new drill targets. Unigold has about $7-million in working capital.

Mr. Hanson owns only 20,000 Unigold shares. He also has an out-of-the-money option to buy 750,000, exercisable at 28 cents. Director Joseph Hamilton, a former Noront chairman who left the same time as Mr. Hanson, owns 1.97 million Unigold shares. He acquired most of his stock in 2011 at 10 cents.