Andrew Cheatle's Unigold Inc. (UGD), unchanged at 8.5 cents on 198,000 shares, is also busy in the Dominican Republic, where it is in the early stages of exploration and still far from special mine tax payments. Even so, Unigold is working to better its local reputation. This week it is helping emergency workers recover the bodies of two illegal miners after three died in an accident on Monday. Another two men were injured. The incident occurred on the company's Neita gold property, but Unigold says none of the men were affiliated with the company. It has provided trucks, tools, lights and pumps to help with the rescue. Work at Neita has been on hold since last fall, when a first-ever resource estimate returned two million ounces of inferred gold. Since then the company has been conserving its $5-million in cash as chief operating officer Wes Hanson compiles data. Cash conservation and data compilation are not exciting to investors, but the lack of activity has excited the local artisanal miners, which have invaded Neita. Unigold may have to use some of its $5-million on better site security.

Meanwhile, Mr. Hanson's former company, Noront Resources Ltd. (NOT: $0.39), has been named the most socially responsible TSX-V company of the year by MacCormick, a mining consultant with a slick website. MacCormick's expensively produced website is well populated with happy faces belonging to, one assumes, local villagers thankful for the corporate social responsibility employed by miners guided by MacCormick International Mining Consultancy est. 2012. The consultant even produces its own index measuring how well mining companies measure up to its CSR standards. Its website describes in detail the high standards MacCormick uses to judge its index members, which are chiefly listed on the TSX-V. The 2013 index begins with an overview section -- beside the happy smiling face of an African villager wearing a colourful blue shawl on her head. The overview includes categories, ranking sytems and statistics. Its next section, categories and feature companies, sits beside another happy villager, wearing a black hat and a colourful poncho as he cares for his llama. Finally, there is a financial analysis section, which contains six categories and is found beside a female village farmer wearing a traditional native gown and showing a little boy how to do something with a brightly orange-coloured bowl. This website is a masterpiece of salesmanship. After scrolling down one eventually comes to a list of the top-20 TSX-V-listed junior mining companies, measured by CSR. After Noront comes True Gold Mining Inc. (TGM: $0.405), Anfield Nickel Corp. (ANF: $1.91), Bear Creek Mining Corp. (BCM: $2) and Arianne Phosphate Inc. (DAN: $1.31). No. 20 goes to Asian Mineral Resources Ltd. (ASN: $0.08). For many miners, the subject of CSR will remind them of a quote by Mark Twain, "Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example."

Noront's award is largely thanks to work Wes Hanson started several years ago. In December, 2009, he first dressed up as Santa and brought wrapped gifts to children of the Marten Falls First Nation and Webequie First Nation, the two bands nearest the company's Eagle's Nest chromite deposit. The tradition continues today and now includes feasts for the parents. It will be difficult for Noront to stop its Christmas splurge, as the bands have become accustomed to receiving their annual gifts. Noront will need the bands' support this year. It is just about to file its final environmental assessment with the government. A mine at Eagle's Nest is projected to cost $609-million. Noront has about $15-million in working capital.