Tungsten

[Tackler]

Noront Resources clarifies Burnt Hill estimate

2005-07-05 14:05 ET - News Release

Mr. Richard Nemis reports

NORONT RESOURCES LTD.: BURNT HILL TUNGSTEN PROJECT NEW BRUNSWICK, CANADA

Noront Resources Ltd., at the request of the TSX Venture Exchange, has provided additional data on its Burnt Hill tungsten property in order to provide some clarification on its recent news as reported in Stockwatch on June 22, 2005.

Noront, in its previous press release, made note of a preliminary estimate of the tungsten mineralization on the company's 100-per-cent-owned Burnt Hill tungsten deposit located in New Brunswick, Canada. Investors are cautioned that this preliminary estimate does not comply with CIM Standards on Mineral Resources and Reserves and is not of sufficient reliability to be considered a resource estimate.

The company cautions that the reserves and resources as reported in news as reported in Stockwatch on June 22, 2005, are considered by the company to be strictly historical in nature and cannot be relied upon. The company has not done the work required to verify the classification of the historical estimate and is not treating the historical estimate as a National Instrument 43-101 defined resource verified by a qualified person.

The historical estimates at Burnt Hill are based upon an extensive surface and underground technical database that is very substantial and that, in the opinion of the qualified person, appears to have been meticulously collected and compiled in a professional manner by the mining and exploration division of a large multinational forest company, Miramichi Lumber (International Paper of New York). The data include numerous geological/geochemical/geophysical reports and maps, scoping study reports, resource/reserve estimate reports, drill logs, assay sheets, daily underground production sheets and records, daily shaft and decline development records, bulk sampling records and metallurgical/processing reports.

It should be noted that the Burnt Hill tungsten deposit has a 137-year history of exploration, development and mining, having been first discovered in 1868. Through its long history it has seen several periods of mining, the first being in 1915 when Acadia Mining entered into an agreement with the Imperial Munitions Board to produce 36 tonnes of concentrate grading 65 per cent tungsten (WO3). Since that time several shafts have been sunk on the property and attempts made at mining, mostly with limited success. Most recently in 1980, a 1,200-foot decline was driven across the deposit and a 13,600-tonne bulk sample extracted for testing on-site and at Lakefield Laboratories. Unfortunately access to the historical workings is not possible at present although it is believed that the decline and main shaft could be dewatered if required.

While the technical database on the Burnt Hill deposit appears to accurately and fairly represent the nature of the Burnt Hill property, it has not been presently possible to conduct a confirmatory sampling program to properly verify the existing underground, drill or assay data (due mainly to an absence of any historical drill core, surface exposures or underground access). For this reason it has been recommended that an in-fill verification drilling program as outlined in the Howe report be conducted and that the database be completely validated thus allowing a fully compliant NI 43-101 resource estimate to be prepared. As previously reported, the company is planning on conducting a major 4,500-metre confirmatory and exploration drilling program this summer in order to provide sufficient information to confirm previous data and allow updating of historical estimates through the preparation of a fully compliant NI 43-101 resource estimate.

Much of the historical work, particularly from the 1970 to 1980 era has concentrated on the No. 2 vein which is the thickest and most persistent of the known vein systems as presently understood. The proposed confirmation and exploration drilling as recommended falls entirely within the defined confines of the No. 2 vein system with individual drill holes located on sections surrounded by existing drill holes and/or underground workings. There are large areas of the deposit that lack adequate drilling and the drill coverage needs to be intensified. The purpose of the drilling is to both confirm the mineralization as historically defined and, once confirmed, to increase the tonnage potential by infill drilling within the confines of the No. 2 vein.

At the request of Noront, P & E Mining Consultants Inc. has recently prepared an "order of magnitude" estimate of the additional tonnage that could conceivably be defined by carrying out the drilling program as recommended. This potential quantity and grade is conceptual in nature. There has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in a discovery of a mineral resource.

In preparing the tonnage estimate P & E calculated a potential volume by extending known mineralized intercepts in existing holes through to the proposed drill holes. The potential mineralized zones were then extended to a maximum of 100 feet beyond the proposed hole in a downdip direction and halfway to the next section (100 feet) in an along strike direction. A tonnage factor of 12 cubic feet per ton was then applied to the calculated volume in order to arrive at an estimated tonnage. This exploration target was determined for areas outside of the area of the historical resource estimate.

The company stated in news as reported in Stockwatch on June 22, 2005, that "it is possible that the tenor of the mineralization will increase at depth as the margin of the underlying intrusion is approached. It is expected that the grade of accessory metals such as tin, molybdenum and bismuth could increase with depth."

There are several lines of evidence for this.

Nearby properties such as Tin Hill are interpreted to be at a deeper erosional level and hence slightly more proximal to the source intrusion. As the name implies, Tin Hill is dominated by tin mineralization and apparently reflects a near intrusive enriched tin environment. The conceptual Gemcom modelling by P & E shows that on a level-by-level basis through the deposit the existing data for molybdenum reflect an increasing molybdenum content with increasing depth. No data are available for tin. Reportedly some of the deeper holes at Burnt Hill had visible tin mineralization.

While these observations and general data are not conclusive proof of increasing metal grades with depth they are at least consistent with a general geological model that allows for such a possibility.

The company is encouraged about the prospects for its Burnt Hill tungsten project, especially given recent increases in the price of tungsten. Although tungsten is currently in a rising price trend, the potential investor is cautioned that there cannot be any assurance that the price of tungsten will continue to increase or even maintain current levels and price volatility could occur. Professional metal companies such as Roskill maintain websites that generally provide a balanced view of historical and predicted metal price trends and a potential investor is referred to such Internet sites for more information on the subject.

The qualified person responsible for overseeing and reviewing the technical data on the Burnt Hill project is Dr. W. D. Ewert, PGeo. The technical information prepared for disclosure in the Burnt Hill news releases has been approved by Dr. Ewert.