Newrange Gold Corp. announced that diamond drilling has commenced on its 100% owned North Birch Project in the Birch-Uchi greenstone belt northeast of Red Lake, Ontario. Approximately 2,000 metres are planned, with the first five holes testing a three- kilometre strike length of the main target horizon, interpreted to be a sheared limb of a folded iron formation.

The 3,850-hectare North Birch Project encompasses a folded and sheared iron formation that is structurally similar to Newmont's Musselwhite Mine, 185 kilometres to the northeast and the largest of this class of deposits in Canada, with past production and reserves exceeding 7 million ounces (Ontario Geological Survey and Newmont Corporation). The Pickle Lake District, in the next greenstone belt to the east of Birch-Uchi, contains several deposits hosting gold in iron formation and adjacent rocks and has collectively produced 2.9 million ounces of gold since 1935 (MNDM archives).