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by Will Purcell

The critical and specialty minerals stocks box score was a dreary 104-61-145 on Wednesday as the TSX Venture Exchange rose eight points to 881. Murray Nye's North American Niobium and Critical Minerals Corp. (NIOB) has "a complete picture" for its seventh hole drilled at the Seigneurie project in the North Shore district of Quebec. Complete or otherwise, the picture had the same effect on the market as a photo of a grisly murder scene, as North American Niobium fell 6.5 cents to 25.5 cents on 940,000 shares Tuesday on the news.

North American Niobium said that a 10-metre interval at depth returned 842 parts per million of niobium oxide. Earlier, the company said a 7.3-metre near-surface interval had graded 453 ppm. Oh, there was some copper as well, but in a different, even deeper zone, where a three-metre stretch graded 0.27 per cent copper.

"We continue to receive results that will help us understand the economic potential of Seigneurie," said Mr. Nye, chief executive officer, adding that the niobium sits in the same intervals as reported early this month, and the copper zone deeper in the hole adds an unexpected component. "At this early stage grade is not the whole story; what matters is how the niobium, copper and rare earths are distributed and which minerals carry them, and that is the work ahead," Mr. Nye concluded, chanting the promoter's refrain for dealing with lacklustre grades. (Later, should they ever drill a bonanza-grade interval, grade is suddenly king.)

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