NEWS RELEASE.

March 27, 2013: Montreal, Quebec – Stornoway Diamond Corporation (Stock Profile – TSX:SWY)  provided an update on progress made in the construction of the Renard Mine Road that will provide year-round vehicle access to the Renard Diamond Project by way of the communities of Mistissini and Chibougamau. Due to favourable weather conditions, construction of the Renard Mine Road has commenced earlier than anticipated, with overall progress already standing at 12% of expected work. First all-season vehicle access to Renard is currently scheduled for the fourth quarter of this year, as previously anticipated.

Under the terms of an agreement executed on November 15th, 2012 by Stornoway, the Québec Ministère des Transports (“MTQ”), the Ministère des Ressources Naturelles, and the Ministère des Finances et de l’Économie (“MFE”), a 240km long all-season road linking Renard to the Québec highway network is currently being constructed in four segments, A to D. Progress is well established on segments A and B, which are being completed by the MTQ as a 70km/hr two-lane gravel highway. Stornoway will complete the remaining 97km covered by segments C and D as a 50km/hr single lane mining road under the terms of a Financing Agreement executed on December 6th, 2012 between Stornoway and the MFE.

As previously reported, first vehicle access to the Renard project site was achieved on February 15th by way of a winter road constructed by the MTQ. The winter road, which opened early and remains in use currently, has been used to ship construction equipment and fuel to the project site and has allowed construction of the all-season Renard Mine Road to commence well ahead of the planned schedule.

To date, the company has achieved the following milestones – CLICK HERE – to read more.

CompanyFeed™

PRESS RELEASE.

March 27, 2013: Vancouver, BC – Balmoral Resources Ltd. (Stock Profile – TSXV:BAR & OTCQX:BALMF) founder & CEO, Darin Wagner, speaks with The Daily Gold Newsletter about the company’s drill program and provides insight into the junior gold industry.

To listen, click play.

CompanyFeed™

It is being reported that James (Jamie) Dimon recently resigned as chairman and CEO of JP Morgan Chase. Stop the press. The letter is just an internet hoax.

In actuality, the board of directors of JP Morgan Chase said on Friday, March 22nd it “strongly endorses” keeping Jamie Dimon as both their chairman and chief executive of the company.

In the resignation letter that is circulating the internet, Dimon says he is tired of being part of the “bankrupt moral culture” of finance. The former executive also reportedly called for a criminal investigation into wrongdoing at JP Morgan and other major investment banks.

“For too long I have been a witness to what I consider to be unethical and sometimes even illegal behavior at the highest levels of Wall Street,” the letter reads. “I thought that I could change the system from the inside. But over the past few years I have been proven wrong.”

“Despite the concerted effort of myself and my closest staff, the recent losses at our Chief Investment Office and the global LIBOR scandal show that firms such as JP Morgan have simply become too big to manage.”

“For that reason I am resigning from my posts as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of JP Morgan Chase effective at noon EST today. And I urge global regulators to introduce new rules seeking to limit the size of scope of the largest international financial institutions.”

The letter continues, “Over four years has passed since the greatest financial collapse in the history of this nation, and still no one on Wall Street has been held accountable for the crimes which have been committed.”

“Washington says they can’t find one single banker guilty of fraud. I can think of 15 people off the top of my head who should be behind bars. Why aren’t more people in jail? If you rob a bank, you go to jail. If a bank robs you, it gets a bailout. We need to end this cycle of impunity on Wall Street. And I am prepared to testify against my fellow bankers if need be.”

“I don’t know why I’ve held my nose for so long. Honestly it was probably the money. But I started doing yoga last month, and have been thinking about researching Buddhism. I’m ready to turn over a new leaf, and find something else besides money upon which to base my self-worth and value as a human being. ”

From Wall Street magnate to a Buddhist yogi, interesting.

Inside Job

The letter continues, “Let me explain how this system works, politicians protect us from competition and criminal prosecution, and in return we give them money to use in their campaigns.”

“There’s only one word to describe such an arrangement: bribery. And you know what’s really insane? Its not even illegal. Those idiots in Washington actually write laws regulating the manner in which they would like to be bribed.”

“Only $2,000 per person, unless its funneled into a SuperPac or whatever or into a primary fund versus a general election fund… I mean who cares how much goes into which account? Its all just corruption plain and simple. And sadly I have been a part of it.”

This is not the first time the U.S. financial industry has come under scrutiny and it won’t be the last; however, it is one of the more creative attempts to expose Wall Street.

Through extensive research and interviews with major financial insiders, politicians and journalists, Charles Ferguson traced the rise of the rogue U.S. financial industry and unveiled the corrosive relationships between corrupted politics and regulation in his movie Inside Job.

If you have not watched Inside Job, the 2010 Academy Award winning documentary, check it out it’s an excellent film.

NEWS RELEASE.

March 21, 2013: Vancouver, B.C. – Cardero Resource Corp. (Stock Profile – TSX:CDU & NYSE-MKT:CDY) has signed a letter of intent with Canadian Forest Products Ltd. outlining the terms under which Cardero Coal will charter the Williston Transporter for transportation of metallurgical coal from Carbon Creek to the railhead at Mackenzie, B.C. This charter party arrangement will terminate at the end of 2015, at which time it is anticipated that Cardero Coal’s purpose-built tug and barge will be commissioned to transport coal through the remainder of the currently proposed mine life.

Under the terms of the LOI, the Companies will enter into two definitive agreements, being a Charter Party relating to the MV Williston Transporter and a Timber Harvesting Agreement relating to mine site logging prior to mine construction. Cardero Coal will pay for the charter of the MV Williston Transporter, but anticipates receiving revenue from the logging of the mine site under the Timber Harvesting Agreement.

MV Williston Transporter

Cardero Coal intends to transport coal from the proposed Carbon Creek mine site to the railhead at Mackenzie via the Williston Reservoir, using a tug and barge system. It is anticipated that Cardero Coal’s purpose-built tug and barge solution will be constructed on site at Mackenzie. A Request for Qualification has been circulated to engineering firms with marine experience and responses are currently under review. It is anticipated that the final design and tender process will begin in Q2 and will be completed in early Q3 2013.

To read more – CLICK HERE.

CompanyFeed™

NEWS RELEASE.

March 19, 2013: Vancouver, BC – Balmoral Resources Ltd. (Stock Profile – TSXV:BAR & OTCQX:BALMF) reports that GTA Resources and Mining Inc. has advised Balmoral that drilling has resumed on the company’s Northshore property located near Schreiber, Ont. The Northshore property hosts the Afric gold zone, a broad at/near-surface gold zone which has, to date, been outlined over an area of 500 by 350 metres and intersected to a vertical depth of 350 metres. Several high-grade vein structures have been identified within the broader Afric zone and these, along with extensions of the Afric zone, will be the focus of the planned drill program. GTA has indicated that it plans to complete 2,500 metres of drilling during the current program.

Gold mineralization on the Northshore property is hosted within a sequence of felsic intrusive and lesser volcanic rocks. The Afric zone is characterized by strong fracturing, moderate to locally strong alteration, disseminated sulphide mineralization and locally abundant visible gold. The mineralization is most similar to that associated with porphyry-style gold deposits and remains open in several directions. High-grade mineralization typically occurs in quartz veins and veinlets hosted by north-northeast-trending fracture sets within the broader Afric zone. Additional high-grade vein systems on the property, including the one associated with the former producing Northshore mine, also remain to be evaluated.

Located immediately south of the town of Schreiber, Ont., within the Hemlo-Schreiber greenstone belt, the Northshore property is currently 100 per cent owned by Balmoral and under option to GTA. GTA can earn an initial 51-per-cent interest in the property under the terms of an option agreement between the companies.

Balmoral also provided an update on Martiniere – CLICK HERE – to read more.

CompanyFeed™

The price of gold leapt 1% against the Dollar and 2.3% against the Euro at the start of Asian trade Monday, as global shares sank and major-government bonds rose following the Cyprus bail-out deal announced by European politicians at the weekend.

“[German negotiators] were hand in hand with Finns,” says an unnamed official quoted by the Financial Times, “who were much more dogmatic” in forcing a levy worth €7 billion on ordinary bank depositors as part of the €17bn deal.

“Scenes of Cypriots lining up at cash machines raised the specter of capital flight elsewhere,” says Bloomberg, while Reuters claims that today’s Bank Holiday may be followed by a forced shutdown on Tuesday to allow parliament to discuss and vote on the depositor levy, priced at 9.9% of savings accounts over €100,000 and 6.7% below.

“It’s as if the Europeans are holding up a neon sign,” writes economist Paul Krugman in his New York Times blog, “saying ‘Time to stage a run on your banks!’…”

“[This is] the first example of deposit hair-cuts during the entire Euro crisis,” says forex strategist Jens Nordvig at Nomura. The Cyprus deal “has potential to make depositors in Portugal, Spain and Italy nervous, despite likely assurances from policymakers,” he writes.

Weaker Eurozone government bonds fell hard Monday morning, driving Greek interest rates half-a-percentage point higher, while base metals dropped alongside crude oil.

First hitting a 13-session high above $1608 per ounce, Dollar prices to buy gold then slipped back as European stock markets followed Asia in dropping over 1%.

The gold price in Euros jumped 2.3% at the start of Asian trade, hitting 5-week highs above €1240 per ounce as the single currency hit new 3-month lows vs. the Dollar.

Gold priced in Sterling held flat, however, as the British Pound surged nearly 2 cents to $1.51 on the foreign exchange market.

“One of the reasons gold has been coming off,” says UBS analyst Tom Price, “is that there has been a view that the risk in Europe was limited and most of their financial market issues were resolved. “This uncertainty could provide a brand new support for gold for days or even weeks.”

Further ahead, “Global liquidity is rising,” says London market-maker HSBC, trimming its 2013 average gold forecast from $1730 per ounce to $1700 but noting that “the Bank of Japan has joined the QE party and the Fed shows no let-up. “Inflation tolerance and currency wars are supportive [of gold]. We expect stronger jewelry and coin demand, lower scrap supply [and] an end to ETF liquidation.”

Investors in gold-backed trust funds led by the $63-billion SPDR Gold Shares cut their holdings last week for the 5th week running, reducing overall exchange-traded gold fund holdings to a new 6-month low of around 2,500 tonnes.

On the futures market, however, speculative traders grew their exposure to rising prices as a group in the week-ending last Tuesday. Latest data from US regulator the CFTC says the net long position of bullish minus bearish bets rose 7.4% from early March’s 54-month low, the fastest jump since September.

“To sustain gold prices at $2000 by 2016”, says analysis from investment bank Merrill Lynch, investors would need to buy gold in quantities equal only to 2008 – almost 50% below 2011’s record 1,700 tonnes – thanks to “steady increases of spending on non-essential items like jewelry in more affluent emerging markets.”

Not long ago, Alpha Minerals, formerly ESO Uranium, was a dog of a stock. Trading at just $.02 last October, chances of being able to finance for the Southwest-Athabasca-Region focused uranium explorer looked slim. Backed against a wall, management had no choice but to roll back shares 10:1 and change its name in hopes of triggering a fresh start.

Then something spectacular happened. Just days after the rollback, Alpha Minerals (Stock Profile – TSXV:AMW) announced Discovery Hole 22 hit anomalous radioactivity over 21 meters. Further exploration holes intersected more mineralization. Today, shares in Alpha are trading over $3.80 — providing an almost 20-fold return to investors in under five months. Good dog.

How exactly the discovery happened is one of those crazy stories that’ll take its place in mining legend.

Five years ago, current Alpha Minerals CEO Ben Ainsworth was working as VP of Exploration for Hathor Exploration — the last Athabasca-Basin-focused uranium junior to be taken out by a major. Meanwhile, his son Garrett, then 28, was toiling away for ESO.

Without money for field work, Garrett turned to searching through the Saskatchewan Mineral Assessment Database for potential finds. And in May 2008, when he was leafing through a 1977 CanOxy (now Nexen) report, something jumped off the page. A CanOxy geologist had identified radioactive anomalies near Patterson Lake, but wrote them off as likely caused by “exotic soils in the till.”

It was just a notation, but it was enough for the younger Ainsworth to head to the Southwestern Athabasca Region to stake the claims that would eventually yield a discovery.

At the PDAC conference in Toronto last week, I had the opportunity to have dinner with the elder Ainsworth, Ben, who told me I had to meet his son Garrett to hear how his discovery came to be.

I connected with Garrett in Vancouver this past Monday. He told me the amazing tale behind the find.

A Five-Year Overnight Success

Garrett Ainsworth had found in that old report what he believed to be an exceptional lead to the next great Athabasca uranium discovery. He wanted to pursue it right away, but dry exploration capital markets forced him to sit on his hands for more than two years.

“We knew there was something radioactive there, but we didn’t get back to do any work until June 2011,” he told me. “I was tossing and turning in my sleep every night for two years! Finally, the first day we went to investigate some of the anomalies, we came across three pitchblende (read: uranium) boulders!”

“We knew the boulders hadn’t come from very far, otherwise they would have eroded. By looking at them, it was game on, and just a matter of tracking down the bedrock source. I was there with an ice expert and everything he was saying was really positive. The ice direction made us look to the northeast.”

“That led us down the road of geophysics. For uranium, what we’re looking for is low resistivity, the blue stuff, which represents that it’s highly conductive. That’s the type of rock you want to have for the host rock for a uranium deposit.”

“Dark blue is always good. The fact that we have this, just up ice from our boulder field, was just wow. If you take the middle point of the boulder field and follow the ice direction, it takes you right there. And we haven’t put any holes into it yet. I think this is the bedrock source. The geophysics was very bullish.”

“Unfortunately, the market didn’t care, and over summer 2012, our share price dropped from $.05 to $.02. We didn’t have any money, so Dad stepped up and did our first payment on the drill program out of his own pocket.”

The elder Ainsworth loaned the company $550,000, banking on his gut feeling about the project, and his son’s instincts. This bridge financing led to Discovery Hole 22 coming in with over 21 meters of mineralization. And finally, the market responded.

Ignoring Dogma

Perhaps there were so few believers in Alpha’s story pre-discovery because the project is located several hundred kilometers from the east side of the Athabasca Basin, where most major uranium discoveries have occurred.

But as I learned during my time with exploration legend Dave Lowell, who told me discoveries can often be the result of “ignoring existing dogmas,” playing it safe by going the traditional route is no way to get ahead. “Some people are so against the west side of the basin,” Garrett said. “That’s why it’s so sweet we found something there.”

NEWS RELEASE.

March 14, 2013: Montreal, Quebec – Stornoway Diamond Corporation (Stock Profile – TSX:SWY) has entered into option agreements with 0954506 B.C. Ltd., a private company controlled by Eira Thomas, formerly a director of Stornoway, relating to Stornoway’s interest in each of the Qilalugaq, Pikoo and Timiskaming exploration projects. Under the terms of the option agreements, the optionee will acquire an 80-per-cent interest in each of the Qilalugaq, Pikoo and Timiskaming exploration projects upon completion of a defined exploration program specific to each project.

The option work programs will be financed and operated by the optionee. Stornoway retains a one-time back-in right to reacquire a 20-per-cent interest in each project, thereby increasing its interest to 40 per cent, by paying the optionee an amount equal to three times the cost incurred by the optionee in connection with the project-specific option work program. Stornoway has a 100-per-cent interest in each of these projects; the Qilalugaq project is subject to a 3-per-cent net smelter returns royalty on metals produced and a 3-per-cent gross-overriding royalty on the sale of industrial minerals, including diamonds.

Matt Manson, Stornoway’s president and chief executive officer, commented: “This option agreement allows us to move these promising exploration projects forward while allowing our management team to focus on the development of the Renard diamond project, our core asset. The bulk sample program at Qilalugaq, for which an inferred mineral resource of 26 million carats was declared by Stornoway in June, 2012, is designed to recover a large enough parcel of diamonds for a preliminary valuation and economic assessment. The Pikoo and Timiskaming work programs are designed to test for the presence of kimberlite with economic potential. At the end of each program Stornoway and the Optionee will be well placed to make a determination on whether to advance each project further within a joint venture, if results warrant.”

To read more about the agreement – CLICK HERE.

CompanyFeed™

NEWS RELEASE.

March 14, 2013: Vancouver, B.C. – Golden Arrow Resources Corp. (Stock Profile – TSXV:GRG) Golden Arrow Resources Corp. has released the results of 14 additional drill holes from the phase two program at the Chinchillas silver project in Jujuy, Argentina, 30 kilometres northeast of Silver Standard’s Pirquitas silver mine and 85 kilometres north of Glencore’s Aguilar silver-lead-zinc mine.

“Our results continue to expand the near-surface mineralized zones at Chinchillas in most directions, which will impact our upcoming resource estimate. Furthermore, we are starting to define Pirquitas-style feeder zones beneath the Silver Mantos and Socavon del Diablo mineralization, indicating the potential to further expand the project” stated Brian McEwen, VP Exploration and Development.

The Company’s Phase II drill program at Chinchillas has successfully concluded, having exceeded the planned 6500 metres of drilling with a total of 7286 metres completed. Results from the program will be combined with results from the previous 43 drill holes, for a total of over 13,500 metres of drill data. This data will be used to define a NI 43-101 compliant silver-lead-zinc resource and technical report in the coming months. Results are pending for 19 remaining holes from the Phase II program.

To see the results – which include 26 metres of 274 g/t silver – CLICK HERE.

CompanyFeed™

Yesterday Labrador Iron Mines Holdings (Stock Profile – TSX:LIM) and Tata Steel Minerals Canada announced they entered into a framework agreement to establish a strategic relationship to cooperate in transport and port infrastructure construction, and to coordinate the development of the Howse and Timmins 4 deposits.

New Millennium Iron Corp. (Stock Profile – TSX:NML) owns a 20% interest in Tata Steel Minerals Canada in joint venture with majority partner Tata Steel.

Raymond James analyst Brad Humphrey writes, “In our view, this is a win-win arrangement that provides LIM with a much needed infusion of C$30 million in cash, and it gives TSMC a valuable deposit that is strategically close to its processing plant that is currently under construction.”

The projects are located adjacent to one another and from 1954 to 1982 these assets were mined as one operation by the Iron Ore Company of Canada.

Humphrey continues, “The companies have cooperated in the past and previously swapped some assets, and we see this announcement as an extension and strengthening of that relationship. We suspect that these two entities could engage in additional partnership arrangements (possibly bringing in other third parties as well), given the potential infrastructure synergies available to iron ore companies operating in the same region.”

The announcements from all three companies mention that the strategic relationship involves multiple facets including: logistics, property rationalization, ancillary mutual support agreements, and potential off-take arrangements.

Raymond James maintains their “Market Perform” rating for Labrador Iron Mines Holdings with a $1.15 target price and rates New Millennium Iron “Outperform” with a $2.90 target price.

U.S. dollar prices to buy gold hovered around $1575 per ounce Wednesday morning in London, in line with last week’s close, as dealers in Asia reported an increase in demand for physical bullion, in contrast with exchange traded funds, which have continued to see selling, in what one analyst calls a “tug of war” between physical buying and ETF selling.

“Short-term, gold should drift lower to the short-term support line at $1569/65 or even to the previous low at $1555,” say technical analysts at Societe Generale. “Initial support is at 1564.88,” adds UBS.

Gold in Sterling hovered just below £1045 an ounce for most of this morning, slightly down on the week, while gold in Euros stayed below €1210 an ounce.

Silver meantime hovered around $28.70 an ounce, very slightly up on the week, while other commodities were similarly flat. Stock markets extended yesterday’s gains, in contrast with major government bond prices which fell.

“We remain somewhat cautious on gold and silver,” says INTL FCStone analyst Ed Meir. “They could be hit by a downward reversal if and when markets start to decouple from the surging equity markets.”

Stock markets in Europe extended yesterday’s gains this morning after several major indices closed at multi-year highs Tuesday.

In London, the FTSE 100 posted its highest close since January 2008 yesterday, while over in the US the Dow saw a new all-time record close and the S&P 500 closed at its highest level since October 31 2007, less than 2% off its all-time record close set earlier that month.

Yesterday saw the release of service sector purchasing managers’ index data for a number of economies, which indicated better-than-expected conditions in the US, UK and Eurozone.

“Looking forward,” says a note from Credit Agricole, “[stock market] sentiment could get further support from data this week as the [Federal Reserve’s] Beige Book today will probably show that employment continued to grow ahead of Friday’s jobs report.”

The latest US nonfarm payrolls figure and unemployment rate are due to be published this Friday. The consensus forecast among analysts is for an addition of 160,000 jobs last month, with the unemployment rate expected to stay at 7.9%.

Later today, the privately-produced ADP Employment report is due to be released at 08.15 EST.

Outflows from the world’s biggest gold exchange traded fund, the SPDR Gold Trust (ticker: GLD), continued yesterday for the eleventh day running, taking the total volume of gold held to back GLD shares to its lowest level since November 2011.

“It is really a tug of war between ETF selling and physical buying right now,” says Yuichi Ikemizu, head of commodity trading, Japan, at Standard Bank. “We have seen quite good physical demand from China and Southeast Asia, but the ETF selling has put a lid on gold prices.”

In China, the most popular forward contract on the Shanghai Gold Exchange continued to trade at a premium of around $20 an ounce compared to the international wholesale gold price Wednesday.

“We are seeing strong and growing support for gold from the physical market,” say Standard Bank commodity strategist Marc Ground, “as evidenced by our Standard Bank Gold Physical Flow Index, which places a floor at around $1560 an ounce.”

“If the buying from China, Indonesia and Thailand continues, it will not be very easy to get physical supply,” one dealer in Singapore told newswire Reuters this morning.

South Korea’s central bank bought 20 tonnes of gold last month, taking its total gold reserve to 104.4 tonnes, 1.5% of overall reserves, it said in a statement.

“As the gold purchase aims to diversify the foreign exchange portfolio over the long haul, gold prices’ short-term volatility have not been considered,” said Lee Jung, head of the Bank of Korea’s investment strategy team.

February also Russia and Kazakhstan continue to buy gold.

NEWS RELEASE.

March 4, 2013: Vancouver, BC – Balmoral Resources Ltd. (Stock Profile – TSXV:BAR & OTCQX:BALMF) reports initial results from the continuing winter 2013 drill program on its Martiniere property in Quebec have confirmed a major expansion of the Martiniere gold system. The Martiniere property forms part of the company’s wholly owned 82-kilometre-long Detour gold trend project in Quebec.

Results from four widely spaced holes drilled to the southwest along projected strike from the high-grade Martiniere West zone, encountered similar high-grade gold mineralization up to 510 metres along strike from the previously known southwest margin of the West zone. High-grade gold intercepts have now been reported for over 850 metres along this structural trend, from the northeastern margin of the West zone to the southwesternmost hole drilled to date (MDX-13-17a). These results also increase the known extent of the Martiniere gold system, which includes the West, Central, ME-16 and Bug Lake area zones, to approximately 2,000 metres in a northeast-southwest direction and it remains open ended. Results were highlighted by an intercept of 6.71 grams per tonne gold over 7.40 metres (including 12.28 g/t gold over 2.45 metres) in hole MDX-13-13, and hole MDX-13-17a which returned two separate high-grade intercepts of 10.67 g/t gold over 2.45 metres and 8.19 g/t gold over 2.22 metres.

“More than doubling the known extent of West-zone-style mineralization and having a very high rate of success with such widely spaced, first-pass drill holes in this type of high-grade gold system further reinforces the scale and upside potential at Martiniere,” said Darin Wagner, president and chief executive officer of Balmoral Resources. “While it’s too early to suggest continuity of these new intercepts with the more extensively drilled West zone it’s clear that the gold-bearing system remains strong well outside our previous drilling and that there is now potential to develop near surface, high-grade gold resources over a significantly expanded strike length.”

For more on the results – CLICK HERE.

CompanyFeed™

NEWS RELEASE.

March 4, 2013: Vancouver, B.C. – North American Tungsten Ltd. (Stock Profile – TSXV:NTC) reports metallurgical testing and analysis of material from tailings pond 3 are ready to commence. The next phase of the tailings reprocessing plan is ready to begin now that the 2011 and 2012 drilling and modeling program has been completed.

History.

Tailings pond 3 was the primary storage facility for all underground and surface production from 1971 until February, 2007. During this period of operation, mill feed graded considerably higher than current feed, leading to significant amounts of WO3 being discarded as tailings, despite good plant recoveries at the time. The tailings pond has a maximum height of 41 metres, a footprint area of approximately 102,000 square metres and a volume of approximately 2.24 million cubic metres, providing a substantial readily available prospective source of material for reprocessing and resource recovery.

Drilling and conceptual modelling program complete.

A sonic drill program throughout the summer of 2011 and spring of 2012 was conducted to explore the possibility of reprocessing unrecovered WO3, copper and gold from tailings pond 3. The program was designed to establish the approximate tonnage and grade of the available tailings, which were then compared with historical production statistics. A total of 25 holes were drilled with a spacing of approximately 200 feet depending on ground conditions. Tailings samples were acquired at five-foot intervals over the entire length of each hole and assayed at Acme Laboratories, Vancouver. In-house assay work along with preliminary metallurgical work was also conducted on site. A preliminary block model was constructed using Minesight software.

For a block model of the tailings pond – CLICK HERE.

CompanyFeed™

NEWS RELEASE.

March 2, 2013: Vancouver, B.C. – North American Tungsten Ltd. (Stock Profile – TSXV:NTC) has released the results of the fall 2012 surface diamond drill program and the discovery of what is now known as the Dakota zone located a mere 700 metres from the main E zone.

A surface diamond drill program was put into place to follow up on surface diamond drill hole S09-07 (drilled in 2009) and the results from underground drilling in 2012. As a result a total of 9,140 feet in nine holes were drilled from one surface location.

Drilling and modelling program complete.

The surface program utilized a track-mounted diamond drill fitted with NQ-sized core. Nine holes averaging over 1,000 feet each were drilled with spacing at depth varying from 100 to 180 feet. Core recovery was excellent and close to 100 per cent. The core was logged by in-house geologists and samples were assayed both in-house and at ALS Laboratories, Vancouver. Visual estimates (using a black light) was also used as a final check.

Significant results from the nine holes (using a 0.3-per-cent WO3 cut-off) include 17.3 feet averaging 0.76 per cent WO3 and 0.31 per cent copper (hole S12-31), 11.6 feet averaging 0.30 per cent WO3 and 5.00 per cent zinc (hole S12-32) and 13.3 feet averaging 1.77 per cent WO3 (hole S12-39).

Results from the drilling are summarized in the table – CLICK HERE.

CompanyFeed™

NEWS RELEASE.

March 1, 2013: Vancouver, B.C. – North American Tungsten Ltd. (Stock Profile – TSXV:NTC) reports results from its underground diamond drill exploration program in the Amber zone on its 100-per-cent-owned Cantung tungsten mine in the Northwest Territories. Drifting toward this zone has commenced.

Stephen Leahy, chief executive officer, stated: “We believe that this new Amber zone will become an important integral component of our underground life-of-mine plan at Cantung. We are very proud of the hard work and dedication of our Tungsten team in the discovery and the definition drilling in the new Amber zone.”

Diamond drilling was implemented to fill a 450-foot gap between high-grade intercepts in drill holes U1943, U1936 and U1937, discussed in the North American Tungsten Feb. 6, 2012, news release, and holes U1978 to U1985, discussed in the North American Tungsten June 6, 2012, news release. A total of 87 diamond drill holes amounting to 25,000 feet of drilling were completed. Many of the holes intersected one to three zones of mineralization. This recent phase of drilling verifies the continuity of the mineralization within the Amber zone and the Central Flats over an area with an approximate strike length of 600 feet and an approximate downdip length of 650 feet. In addition, it opens up 800 feet of strike length of potential mineralization to the east. Drilling is now commencing in the area of Amber zone east to test the continuity of two areas. Drifting toward the Amber zone west has commenced from four headings within the current mine workings.

Significant results from the drill program include 15 feet averaging 4.27 per cent tungsten trioxide (DDH: U2082), 22.7 feet averaging 4.30 per cent WO3 (DDH: US2083), 10.3 feet averaging 3.60 per cent WO3 (DDH: U2114) and 15.4 feet averaging 2.44 per cent WO3 (DDH: U2081).

For a table of containing intervals and the estimated true widths for those intersections – CLICK HERE.

CompanyFeed™

Spot market gold bullion fell to one-week lows below $1570 per ounce Friday morning, on course for a third straight weekly loss, having ended February down 5.9% as gold exchange traded funds saw their biggest calendar month bullion outflows on record.

“ETFs will probably contribute negatively to investment demand for the first time in eight quarters,” says today’s Commerzbank commodities note. “It is nonetheless too early to proclaim the end of the twelve-year bull market for gold. The ultra-loose monetary policy of major central banks, negative real interest rates and gold purchases by the central banks of emerging economies continue to suggest that gold prices will rise.”

Silver meantime fell to just above $28 an ounce this morning, while stocks and commodities also ticked lower as the US Dollar gained.

Over in India, traditionally the world’s biggest gold buying nation, the government’s annual budget unveiled Thursday included the introduction of inflation-linked bonds as part of an effort to encourage people to invest in alternatives to gold.

“The household sector must be incentivized to save in financial instruments rather than buy gold,” said finance minister P. Chidambaram.

India’s authorities have expressed official concern about the impact of gold imports on the country’s trade deficit, with the government raising the import duty on gold to 6% last month.

“We are happy with the budget,” said All India Gems & Jewellery Trade Federation chairman Bachhraj Bamalwa. “We were expecting something wrong to happen in the form of another hike in import or excise duty. Today is the first day after the budget, we are not expecting great sales in March due to the fiscal year end, but April sales should increase due to weddings.”

Elsewhere in Asia, “[gold] demand from jewelers has recovered a little [with] prices below $1600,” says Heraeus Metals general manager Dick Poon in Hong Kong, “though investors are either selling or sitting on the sidelines.”

Growth in China’s manufacturing sector slowed a little last month, according to both the official purchasing managers index and the one produced by HSBC which were published Friday.

Over in Europe, Germany’s manufacturing PMI rose back above 50, indicating the sector returned to expansion, while for the Eurozone as a whole the PMI held steady at 47.9, slightly better than analysts’ consensus forecast. The Eurozone unemployment rate however rose to a record high 11.9% in January, data published Friday show.

“All the data is supporting a [European Central Bank interest] rate cut, which we see in the second quarter,” says Standard Chartered economist Sarah Hewin.

Britain’s manufacturing sector meantime fell back into contraction last month, PMI data published Friday show.

“Clearly the data are weak,” says ING economist James Knightley, “and with [Wednesday’s] GDP report showing little sign of rebalancing in the UK economy, the Bank of England has more work to do.”

BoE deputy governor Paul Tucker confirmed earlier this week that the Monetary Policy Committee has discussed the possibility of introducing negative interest rates.

The Pound fell sharply against the Dollar this morning following the release of the PMI data, hitting its lowest level since July 2010 at just above $1.50. Gold in Sterling meantime recovered earlier losses as the Pound fell to trade around £1045 per ounce by the end of Friday morning.

The average Sterling gold price in February was £1051.35 an ounce, slightly up on the previous month, in contrast with the average Dollar gold price which fell 2.6%.

In the US, President Obama is due to meet with congressional leaders later today, as $85 billion of defense and welfare spending cuts known as the sequester begin today.

“We do not think the US sequester…will change [gold market] sentiment one way or the other,” says Ed Meir, metals analyst at brokerage INTL FCStone. “The $85 billion in spending cuts is simply too small to make much of a difference to the economy and although it could cause some problems, it will have no bearing on influencing investor allocations among different asset classes… [but] we suspect that we will see more price erosion heading into next week given gold’s poor fundamental and technical backdrop.”