Last week, Kootenay Gold (TSX.V:KTN) released the initial results from the Phase 2 drill program now underway at the company’s 100% owned Promintorio project.

Soltera Mining Corp. (OTCBB:SLTA) has been busy acquiring properties during the first quarter of 2008. Unstable markets have been unable to dampen the resolve with which management goes about building shareholder value.

By Eric Pratt

Goldcliff Resources (TSX.V:GCN) assayed a trenching sample from its 100% owned Panorama Ridge project that returned a value of over 15 ounces per tonne of gold. The bonanza grade sample was assayed twice to confirm the result, which has validated the company’s theory that there would be high grade zones encountered throughout broadly disseminated lower grade host rock.

Economists usually treat time like money – as another scarce resource that people spend to achieve certain ends. Money is used to pay for things like furniture and plane tickets; time is spent assembling the do-it-yourself bookshelf or searching for cheap flights on the Internet.

By Darryl Kelley

In what is quickly becoming a habit with Bard Ventures (TSX.V:CBS), another great intercept from the drilling ongoing at the Lone Pine Molybdenum Project has returned 0.06% Molybdenum over 284 meters.

By Doug Hadfield

It may not be the sexiest of metals to investors, but iron is also arguably one of the most important. That was the message of Brian Thurston, President of Raytec Metals Corp. (TSX.V: RAY) in a recent interview with Resourcex.com. The junior exploration company has turned its focus from uranium in the Athabasca Basin to iron ore in Ontario and South America.

In Mississippi, just a few kilometres from the town of Natchez, KFG Resources (TSX.V: KFG) is about to try something that CEO Bob Kadane believes will create significant value for his company’s shareholders.

When the ancient Roman scholar Publilius Syrus said, “No pleasure endures unseasoned by variety,” he could well have been referring to mining companies. One trick ponies, as recent events are sure to prove again, live and die the by price of a single commodity, and as such, are more vulnerable to sudden or unexpected market movements than are polymetallic companies.

The year 2007 was certainly a year to be remembered by investors familiar with Montello Resources (TSX.V: MEO). The company and its JV partner Pennine Petroleum Corp. (TSX.V:PNN) have achieved success at their Pincher Creek operations in Alberta, with one new well completed and scheduled to soon become a producer.

Investors in True North Gems (TSX.V: TGX) were treated to a rare gift this Christmas past when the company reported the discovery of a new sapphire prospect complete with a 139 carat blue sapphire on its Beluga sapphire property in Nunavut, Canada.

Russian mining and exploration have had a long road toward real openness since Glasnost and Perestroika were decreed by the then president of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev. And forefront of juniors making headway in modern day Russia is Golden Reign Resources (TSX.V:GRR).

As per its December 4 news release, True North Gems has wrapped up its 2007 drilling program with the completion of the final four drill holes on the Sarfaq and Ridgetop ruby prospects at its Fiskenaesset Ruby Project.