GOLD DISCOVERY PROMPTS SEARCH FOR PARTNERS.

Noront Resources Ltd. is looking to partner with a gold company as it continues to lead exploration of the Ring of Fire, a vast isolated area in northwestern Ontario with untapped mineral resources.

The Toronto-based miner has proven nickel and chromite deposits in the Ring of Fire, but those base metals are too heavy to transport out of the area, given the current lack of road access. Gold, on the other hand, is so valuable that it can often be flown out of remote areas.

A road could take a minimum of five years to build, chief executive Alan Coutts said, so in the meantime the company has initiated discussions with several intermediate to senior gold producers, in Canada and elsewhere, about striking a joint partnership to explore for gold.

“We know there’s good gold potential in this area,” he said. “It’s the right rocks, the right age, but we just really haven’t got around to dealing with the gold, so we’re looking for a partner.”

A document that Noront circulated to gold producers shows a core drilling sample with a visible splotch of the yellow metal, and notes “accidental (gold) discoveries” in 54 drill holes. It’s not exactly a secret that there could be gold in the Ring of Fire, so named for the circular shape of the underlying geological structure. In May 2010, Noront, while drilling for chromite, disclosed it had found a zone “hosting erratically distributed gold.” It highlighted a 1.5-metre-long streak that contained 18 grams of gold per ton, according to the press release.

But an informal poll of some of the largest gold companies in Canada and the U.S. did not apparently reveal strong interest in spending scarce exploration funds on an area that Noront has already staked, and expects to maintain an interest in.