NAP is committed to growth through sustained and strategic exploration investment. The Company maintains a unique understanding of PGE mineralizing processes based on its two decades of operating experience at its Lac des Iles (LDI) mine.

The Company currently maintains a three-tiered exploration strategy that encompasses:

• Advanced exploration programs at the LDI mine property (Mine Block Intrusion) including both underground and surface drilling;
• Greenfields exploration on other LDI suite intrusions in the immediate vicinity of the mine; and,
• Regional reconnaissance programs focussed on defining high potential and underappreciated PGE exploration opportunities in northwestern Ontario and in other parts of North America.

With permits, mine infrastructure and available capacity at the LDI mill, NAP can move from exploration success to production on an accelerated timeline. The Company is committed to continual improvement in its exploration programs and in the technical ability of its exploration team. This team maintains a focus on delivering new discoveries at LDI and adjacent greenfields properties that would have an immediate impact on the Company’s resource base and bottom line.

NAP has aggressively expanded its portfolio of PGE greenfields exploration properties in order to realize value from the significant knowledge gained from over two decades of exploration experience at LDI. It also maintains several Quebec-based gold exploration properties that are non-core and for which the Company will seek to realize value through either sale or joint venture. NAP also holds a 50% stake in the Shebandowan West nickel property (50:50 Joint Venture with Vale) and the option to earn a 100% interest in two early-stage gold exploration properties (Shabaqua and Salmi Lake), both in Ontario.

Ontario

Greenfields Exploration

NAP’s northwestern Ontario greenfields PGE properties comprise over 21,000 hectares of land and seven discrete intrusive bodies, all believed to be related to a single, major mafic-ultramafic magmatic event that occurred in the Late Archean.

In 2012 NAP aggressively expanded its land position in the LDI region through staking and purchase or option agreements.  It now controls the mineral rights for a majority of the known LDI suite of intrusions that, despite intermittent historic work, have never been systematically explored – and specifically not with the robust exploration model that NAP has developed for the Lac des Iles deposits.  All of these PGE greenfields properties are located within 30km of the LDI mine and all have the potential to deliver new resources and additional feed to the mill.  In the second half of 2012, the company commenced systematic exploration on most of these new properties including:

The first high resolution electromagnetic and magnetic surveys (Geotech’s Versatile Time Domain or “VTEM” System) on the properties;

• Detailed review of the quaternary geology and subsequent soil and till geochemical surveys;
• An aggressive surface trenching, mapping, prospecting and sampling program; and,
• Detailed analysis of regional magnetic survey data and integration into a provisional structural synthesis for the LDI region including identification of prospective magmatic feeder faults.

Discovery of new PGE resources stemming from a sustained investment into PGE greenfields exploration remains a strategic priority for the Company. NAP’s unique status as the only primary PGE producer in Canada provides a major competitive advantage in terms of identifying and successfully exploring PGE greenfields projects. Its advanced understanding of PGE mineralizing processes at LDI can now be translated into exploration success on similar mafic-ultramafic complexes.

Quebec

Strategic Land Package

NAP’s Quebec gold portfolio consists of a 607 km2 land package on favourable geology in the Abitibi region. The portfolio includes the Vezza mine, the Sleeping Giant mine (currently on care and maintenance), and a number of highly prospective exploration projects – all strategically located within trucking distance to regional Sleeping Giant mill that can be expanded to process ore from the other properties if they are developed.

In July 2012, the Company announced its corporate strategy will be focused on palladium and therefore will be seeking divestiture opportunities for its gold assets. Accordingly, there will be minimal exploration expenditures in 2012 on NAP’s Quebec-based gold properties.