"Dr. Tom Morris's Northern Superior Resources Inc. (SUP), down one cent to six cents on 704,000 shares, has received assays of up to 1.12 grams of gold per tonne over 6.34 metres from the Black Phoenix area of the Lac Surprise project in Quebec. A second hole also hit low-grade gold -- it returned 0.62 gram per tonne over 5.9 metres -- but the first three holes of the five-hole drill program failed to yield any at all.

Richard Nemis's Bold Ventures Inc. (BOL: $0.03) is well into the final year of a three-year option arrangement that would give it a 60-per-cent interest in the Lac Surprise project. Mr. Nemis, Bold's president and CEO, deemed the modest grades "very encouraging." He trotted out the usual geological and geophysical reasons to support his enthusiasm, adding that the Black Phoenix area warrants additional drilling based on the "favourable results" received so far.

The Newmarket-based Mr. Nemis, a retired lawyer has been running and promoting Bold since 2010, but he does not draw a salary from the company. His last paycheque came in 2013, when he was receiving $32,000 per year. Dr. Morris does considerably better with Northern Superior. That company had been paying him $225,000 per year and he got a modest bump during 2015."