El Niņo started out as a Uranium/Molybdenum exploration company, with the acquisition of a Moly Project at Anderson Lake, and eight Uranium projects located in the Bancroft area back in 2005. Harry Barr, President/Chairman of El Niņo Ventures at the time, was looking for a project that would set El Niņo apart from the other companies in his stable of exploration ventures. He already had CanAlaska Uranium (CVV) exploring for Uranium in the Athabascan Basin; Freegold Ventures (ITF) exploring for Gold in Alaska/Idaho; and Pacific North West Capital (PFN), a PGM company with a prolific property in the Sudbury Basin.
A few years later, Harry was presented with an amazing opportunity: to explore the world famous Bathurst Zinc/Base Metals Mining Camp via an Option/Joint Venture agreement with Falconbridge Ltd. The deal was signed in May 2006 between El Niņo Ventures Inc. and Falconbridge Ltd. This deal would allow El Niņo to earn up to 50% of Falconbridge Ltd's land position by expending $5,000,000 over the next 2 years. El Niņo was now playing in the big league with the acquisition of this Bathurst deal, and Harry decided that is was time he acquired a big-league player to run this company and help push it to the next level.
In came Mr. Jean Luc Roy, with over 20 years of industry related experience --- 5 years spent as the Managing Director of a little company called First Quantum Minerals (FM) that grew into one of the mining sector's success stories with his assistance. During his time at First Quantum, Jean Luc was instrumental in seeing a tailings project through to production in less then a year in the DRC during a time of political unrest. He joined the company with a stock price that was trading near $2.50 and a market cap of approximately $250 million; he left First Quantum to join El Niņo with the stock trading at approximately $60.00, a market cap of around $3.5 billion, and 750 people working underneath him, 30 of which were ex-pats. With Jean Luc Roy as President, Harry could take a step back and focus on what made him successful all these years: financings, joint ventures and new property acquisitions.
El Niņo Ventures started its work program in July 2006 and began a 23,500-metre drill program in October. This diamond drill program is the first stage of a 55,000-metre drill program that will continue on through March 2008 and see El Niņo expend $10,000,000 over that time, with $5,000,000 coming from the New Brunswick Government.
