TORONTO, ONTARIO - (June 6, 2008) - Noront
Resources Ltd. ("Noront") (TSX VENTURE:NOT) is pleased to
report that it is continuing with its drilling and other exploration
activities in the McFaulds Lake area of northern Ontario in the James Bay
Lowlands and has also been furthering its corporate development objectives.
Accordingly, Noront wishes to present the following report on its corporate
activities.
CORPORATE UPDATE
Further to its appointment of JPMorgan Securities Inc. and IBK Capital
Corp. as its financial advisors last year, Noront is continuing to identify
companies who may be interested in becoming a strategic partner with Noront
to assist it in developing its Double Eagle project. Noront is currently in
preliminary discussions with a number of such candidates. There can be no
assurance that such discussions will continue or will result in the
successful conclusion of a transaction involving Noront and any other
person.
Noront has also been assigned by WSR Gold Inc. ("WSR"), the
option to earn a 35% interest in the property located in the James Bay
lowlands (the "Golden Valley Property") owned by Golden Valley
Mines Ltd. ("Golden Valley"). WSR has entered into a letter of
intent with Golden Valley whereby it has the option to earn a 70% interest
in the Golden Valley Property (the "Option"), and Noront can earn
half of WSR's interest in the Golden Valley Property as further described
below.
In order to acquire its 35% interests in the Property, Noront will be
required to make payments to Golden Valley totaling $175,000 (or $350,000
in the aggregate with the payments from WSR), payable in cash and/or by the
issuance of common shares of WSR (and Noront) upon the later of the
execution of a definitive option agreement, or the receipt of approval from
the TSX Venture Exchange. The number of shares, if any, to be issued by
Noront (and WSR) as consideration for the Option will be equal to the
dollar amount of the total consideration that Golden Valley elects to
receive in shares divided by the ten day volume weighted average price of
such shares for the ten trading day period immediately preceding the date
on which a press release is issued announcing a definitive option agreement
amongst WSR, Noront and Golden Valley. In addition to these payments, WSR
and Noront will also be required to incur aggregate exploration
expenditures on the Property of at least $5,000,000 over a three year
period (of which $1,000,000 must be expended in the first year).
Upon WSR and Noront earning their collective 70% interest in the Property,
WSR, Noront and Golden Valley shall enter into a joint venture agreement.
The Joint Venture Agreement will require WSR and Noront to fund all project
costs up to the start of commercial production from the Property. Following
the commencement of commercial production, any cash flow after payment of
operating expenses and third party financing costs will be distributed to
Noront and WSR until such time as the aggregate of their project costs,
including interest, up to the commencement of commercial production have
been repaid, following which such cash flow shall be distributed to the
parties on a pro rata basis.
The transaction remains subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange
and execution of the definitive option agreement.
In order to continue
the development of Noront's assets and strategically enhance the value of
the company to shareholders, the Board of Directors as well as Management
of Noront has, over recent months, shouldered increasing responsibilities
commensurate with the growth of the company. As such, the board of
directors of Noront has been working to identify persons who could add
their talents to the board of directors. In that regard, Noront is pleased
to welcome Mr. Paul Parisotto as an independent member of the Board of
Directors.
Mr. Parisotto is currently President and Chief Executive Officer of Arizona
Star Resource Corp., which was acquired by Barrick Gold Corporation for
$773 million and Blacksands Petroleum, Inc., a publicly traded US company
focused on the acquisition, exploration and development of conventional and
unconventional oil in western Canada. Blacksands owns a 75% interest in
Access Energy, a private company of which Mr. Parisotto is also President
and Chief Executive officer.
Mr. Parisotto has been President of Coniston Investment Corp. from October
1999 to the present. Coniston is a private firm specializing in providing
investment banking services including the raising of equity and debt and
providing mergers and acquisitions advisory services to small market
capitalization companies which are either private or public. Prior to these
current responsibilities, Mr. Parisotto was Manager, Original Listings at
The Toronto Stock Exchange from 1985 to 1994. During his tenure at the TSE
he was involved in the listing process for over 250 companies. He has also
been Senior Vice-President, Corporate Finance for Marleau, Lemire
Securities Inc. from January 1995 to January 1998 and was Vice-President
and Director, Investment Banking for HSBC Securities (Canada) Inc. from
March 1998 to June 1999. He was also director of Nevada Pacific Gold Ltd.,
a public company acquired by US Gold Inc. in a share exchange take over bid
for over $100 million.
As well, the Board of Directors of Noront has been working to restructure
the management of Noront as follows, to better reflect the duties being performed
by existing management:
Mr. Richard Nemis, LL. B. continues in his role as President and Chief
Executive Officer of Noront, an office he has held since 1980. Mr. Nemis
was also president and CEO of Central Crude Ltd. until its merger to become
River Gold Mines Inc. During the period in which Mr. Nemis was its
President, Central Crude and instrumental in the development of two gold
deposits, namely the Eagle River deposit near Mishibishu Lake (south of
Hemlo, Ontario), currently operated by River Gold Mines Ltd. (changed name
to Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd.), and the Moss Lake gold deposit near Thunder
Bay area, Ontario.
Mr. Nemis during his career worked with Noble Harbinson, and was associated
with a number of the Harbinson group of companies, including, Consolidated
Durham Mines Ltd., Dominion Explorers Ltd., and Noble Mines and Oils. Mr.
Nemis currently is a senior member and part owner of the largest structural
steel firm in northern Ontario, Noront Steel, operating since 1946
headquartered in Sudbury, Ontario. In addition to Noront, Mr.. Nemis is
also a director of the following junior resource companies: Tribute
Minerals Inc. and Goldeye Explorations Limited.
Mr. John Harvey, (P.Eng.), formerly Executive Vice President of Noront, has
been appointed Chief Operating Officer of Noront.
Mr. Harvey worked with Noranda Inc. from the early 1960s and was President
of Noranda Exploration from 1982 until his early retirement in 1994. He was
also President of Hemlo Gold Mines from 1989 until 1992. Before Noranda,
Mr. Harvey was VP - Exploration for Mattagami Lake Mines which merged with
Noranda in 1982.
Mr. Harvey is actively involved with the McFaulds Lake Base Metal Camp
through his affiliation with Noront Resources Ltd., as well as a board
member of the following Ring of Fire companies; Tribute Minerals Inc.,
Canadian Ore Bodies Inc., Freewest Resources Canada Inc. and GoldEye
Explorations Ltd.
Mr. Neil D. Novak, (P.Geo.), originally joined the Board of Noront in 2001
and was appointed VP Exploration in November 2007. In recognition of his
long-standing relationship with Aboriginal peoples throughout his career,
Neil Novak has been appointed Vice-President Corporate and Aboriginal
Affairs for Noront. Mr. Novak's professional experience has spanned
exploration projects in uranium, gold, diamonds and other precious metals,
as well as base metals.
Mr. Novak started his career as project geologist for the Canadian
operations of Australian based uranium explorer Pancontinental Mining Ltd.
between 1977 and 1983. In 1983 he left Pancontinental and formed a private
consulting company, Nominex Ltd., and as managing director of Nominex, Mr.
Novak became involved with and managed various North American and
International exploration assignments, including base metal and diamond
projects in the James Bay Lowlands of Northern Ontario, in the area now
known as the "Ring of Fire". Mr. Novak helped form (in 1992) and
eventually became an active board member and senior officer of Spider
Resources Inc., in 1995 and remained as such through to early 1999. Neil
was re-elected to the Board of Spider in September 1999, and was appointed
President and CEO of Spider in June 2005.
In addition to being a board member of Noront and Spider, Mr. Novak is a
member of the board of directors of other public companies including
Simberi Mining Corporation, and Cadillac Ventures Inc.
David Graham, (B.Sc.), joined the board of Noront in December 2006, and has
been appointed Vice-President, Special Projects for Noront. In 1986 Mr.
Graham became President of R. Bruce Graham and Associates Ltd. a mining
consulting firm that has served the mineral industry since 1956.
Mr. Graham has over twenty five years of experience in the industry and has
served as a director and manager of a number of private and public natural
resource and mining concerns. His relevant experience has been in the
fields of base and precious metals, uranium and industrial minerals and
materials. Mr. Graham has worked in Canada, the United States, Scandinavia
and Africa.
In addition to the foregoing appointments, Noront is currently in
discussions with certain individuals to add to the management team of the
company, and expects to be in a position to announce additional
appointments shortly.
Noront is a tier 2 junior resource company on the TSX Venture Exchange,
trading symbol NOT, with 129,493,883 shares issued to date.
Investors are invited to visit Noront's IR Hub at http://www.agoracom.com/IR/Noront
where they can post questions and receive answers or review questions and
answers already posted by other investors. Alternatively, investors are
able to e-mail all questions and correspondence to NOT@agoracom.com where
they can also request to be added to the investor e-mail list to receive
all future press releases and updates in real time.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS:
R. Nemis, President and Chief Executive Officer
The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept
responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Noront Resources Ltd.
Richard Nemis
President and Chief Executive Officer
(416) 864-1456
Fax: (416) 367-5444
Email: info@norontresources.com
Website: www.norontresources.com