In March 2005, North American Palladium Ltd. entered into an Option Joint Venture Agreement with Gossan Resources Ltd. to earn up to a 75% interest in Gossan�s Bird River Project, located 40 kilometres east of Lac du Bonnet, in southeastern Manitoba.

North American Palladium Ltd. can earn an initial 50% interest in the property by incurring work expenditures of $2.5 million and cash payments totaling $400,000 to Gossan by August 30, 2008. North American Palladium can elect to increase its interest a further 15% by completing a bankable feasibility study and an additional 10% interest, by arranging project financing.

The Bird River Property encompasses approximately 6,800 hectares and covers over 21 kilometres of the Bird River Sill Complex.  This is a layered intrusive complex, averaging 1,000 metres in thickness and consisting of a lower layered ultramafic series and an upper gabbroic series.  The Bird River Sill was intruded along the contact of the Lamprey Falls (meta-basalt) and Bernic River (meta-conglomerate) formation of the Archean Rice Lake Greenstone Belt.

The Bird River Sill hosts significant occurrences of magmatic sulphides (Ni, Cu, and PGM) including the past producing Dumbarton and Maskwa Deposits.  Most of these magmatic sulphide prospects occur at or near the basal contact zone of the layered ultramafic series or within adjoining iron formation/mafic meta-volcanics.

The principle exploration target is for semi-massive to massive sulphide (Ni, Cu, and PGM) deposits along the lower contact zone of the Bird River Sill.

In June-July of this year North American Palladium carried out a short diamond drill program consisting of eight (8) holes, B5-05-01 to 08 (hole BR-05-03a had to be abandoned in overburden) totaling 967.7 meters. Drilling tested seven (7) airborne electromagnetic conductors, identified from the Airborne VTEM Survey flown earlier this year by North American Palladium, along the inferred base of the Bird River Sill. Four of the eight holes encountered significant sulphide mineralization highlighted by hole BR-05-02 that intersected 13.75 meters of 1.077% Ni and 0.501% Cu  including 4.75 meters grading 2.143% Ni and 0.440% Cu.