Noront hits bonanza grades at Windfall (December 01, 2006)

Vancouver – The extensively tested Windfall gold project in Urban Township, Quebec turned over a pleasant surprise for Noront Resources (NOT-V, NOSOF-O) in its latest drilling.

In wrapping up its 12-hole, 3,300-metre fall drill program, hole NOT-06-100 returned a whopper of an intercept with 4.8 metres (from 119.6 metres downhole depth) grading 1,792.9 grams gold per tonne (52.3 ozs. per ton) using fire assay. Splits from the extremely high-grade interval were re-assayed returning 800.1 grams gold with fire assay and 1,327.9 grams gold by metallic screen assay.

The three holes preceding 100 did not encounter any new significant gold mineralization. Core from the final eight holes are in the lab with results anticipated prior to year-end.

Noront has not yet finalized next year’s exploration plans for Windfall although any work program will likely not commence until the spring due to limited road access during winter.

Gold mineralization at Windfall, outlined over an 800 metre by 800 metre area, is interpreted as occurring along a series of eight north-easterly striking and steeply north-dipping structural zones within felsic volcanics of the Barry-Urban greenstone belt. Mineralization is accompanied by sulphide, silica and some potassium enrichment with zones of brecciation.

Noront geologists hypothesize secondary gold enrichment from a series of flatly-dipping and northerly striking cross structures that form shoots within the north-easterly vein structures. Widths of the gold mineralized zones vary from less-than-one metre to about 17 metres and exhibit limited vertical continuity in addition to erratic grade variation.

Mineralization has also been traced to the north, across the claim boundary onto Murgor Resources‘ (MUG-V, MUGRF-O) adjacent property.

Alto Ventures (ATV-V, ALVLF-O), which holds the claims just east of Noront’s project, retains a 0.5% net smelter royalty on Windfall.

Noront shares got a significant boost on the high-grade results, closing up 55% or 16.5 at 46.5 apiece on trading volume of over 8.5 million. With 54.6 million shares outstanding, the company posts a $25.4-million market capitalization.