GOLD – Manson Creek Resources Ltd. Jan. 24 reported that it has entered into an option with Panarc Resources to acquire a 100 percent interest in the Up Town Gold project located adjacent to the historic Giant mine in the Northwest Territories. The 3,388-hectare (9,181.5 acres) property has five known gold-bearing zones hosted in an Archean granodiorite adjacent to the Yellowknife greenstone belt, which boasts more than 12 million ounces of gold production from the nearby Giant and Con mines. Manson Creek may acquire a 100 percent interest in the Up Town Gold property over a four-year period by expending C$500,000 in exploration and making staged cash payments and common share issuances totaling C$300,000 and 400,000 common shares of the company respectively. Panarc Resources will retain a 2.5 percent net smelter royalty, of which 60 percent (1.5 percent NSR) may be purchased at Manson Creek’s election for C$1.5 million. An advance payment on royalties totaling C$120,000 would be payable monthly in C$20,000 increments upon acceptance by Manson Creek or its successors of a bankable feasibility study. Historic work on the Up Town Gold property, done primarily in the 1960s, focused on the narrow quartz filled shears and associated quartz veins while largely ignoring the larger zones of hydrothermally altered host granodiorite. The shear zones, associated fractures and quartz veins vary from millimeter widths to well over 3.0 meters and they commonly are surrounded by a broader alteration halo. Alteration consists of silicification and sericitization with hematite alteration present as well. Mineralization is exposed at surface with exposures of tens of meters common with many stretching for hundreds of meters. Until recently, gold exploration has focused primarily on volcano-sedimentary greenstone belts, seeking structurally controlled mesothermal lode-gold deposits, while the adjacent granitoid rocks have been largely ignored as hosts for gold mineralization. A growing number of significant bulk minable lode-gold deposits have been found in Archean granitic rocks, and there is a growing awareness that they constitute a separate deposit class – referred to as “Granitoid Hosted Lode Gold” deposits. Several of the gold-bearing zones on the Up Town Gold property had historical estimates completed in the 1960s with more than 2,500 meters of diamond drilling completed. In many of the historic assessment reports there is mention of hydrothermally altered host rock, but no systematic sampling was ever conducted on these altered zones. A due diligence visit conducted by Manson Creek personnel in December located many of the historical areas of trenching. Shoveling of snow allowed for limited exposure of the located Rod and J Group trenches and 13 rock samples were collected from silicified shear and vein material as well as altered wall rock. Nine grab samples were taken at various trenches in the Rod zone and four samples were taken from a trench in the J Group zone. The Rod samples returned an average of 11.2 grams per metric ton gold with two of the grab samples returning high-grade gold of 49.6 g/t and 19.2 g/t gold. The J Group samples averaged 0.13 g/t gold with trace silver in the limited sampling. The assays show high-grade zones occur within broader halos of lower grade mineralization and are consistent with the Granitoid Hosted Lode Gold deposit exploration model.

INCENTIVES – Darnley Bay Resources Ltd. Jan. 25 said that in keeping with its stock option plan, its officers and directors have been awarded a total of 2.2 million options exercisable at C10 cents per share, expiring Jan. 24, 2017. As a result, 4.95 million of a possible 10,518,465 options have been granted. The grant is subject to certain conditions, including regulatory approval. Darnley Bay Resources is exploring for base and precious metals on its 4,600 square-kilometer (xx squares miles) land holding in Northwest Territories. Darnley Bay is focused on exploring for and developing base metal and diamond deposits related to the 50-kilometer by 80-kilomeeter, 132 mGal Darnley Bay gravity anomaly near Paulatuk, Nwt. The source of the anomaly remains unexplained.

LAND USE – The NWT & Nunavut Chamber of Mines Jan. 20 said it has submitted its recommendations that important mineral resources in the 10,000-square-kilometer (3,860 square miles) Ts’ude niline Tu’eyeta, or Ramparts area of the Northwest Territories be protected for its future development potential. The area is a candidate protected area under the NWT Protected Areas Strategy. Geoscience studies reveal that large parts of the Ramparts area have the potential to host deposits of zinc, lead, copper, diamonds and oil and gas that could create socio‐economic opportunities for the K’asho Got’ine people, for the Sahtu region, and for the Northwest Territories. To maximize the opportunities, the chamber recommends that the moderate to high mineral potential areas not be included under any protected area designation that blocks development forever. The chamber recommends the Sahtu Land Use Plan be the tool used for protection as it can be modified by future generations to accommodate their needs, it provides a more flexible approach to balancing environmental values and economic development, and it provides more control to local communities. “Mineral deposits rich enough to mine are rare and hard to find, being found where Mother Nature put them, not necessarily where we might prefer they be located,” said Chamber President Pamela Strand. “Given the rarity of high mineral potential lands, and their importance to creating future economic opportunities, we believe they should remain open for development.” The exploration investment climate in the NWT has suffered significantly over the past five years and the NWT is one of the few jurisdictions globally that is suffering a downturn in exploration investment in the face of a global exploration boom. The Chamber of Mines is urging public and Aboriginal governments and communities to take steps to re‐invigorate the investment climate, including reassessing the need to protect large areas of the territory from development forever, as is being considered for the Ramparts or Ts’ude niline Tu’eyeta area. The Chamber of Mines submission can be found on its website at www.miningnorth.com under “Library, Protected Areas.” The full Ts’ude niline Tu’eyeta Recommendations Report is found on the NWT Protected Areas Strategy site at: http://www.nwtpas.ca/