Trading Summary (May 04, 2001)

After opening almost 80 points lower in the morning on higher U.S. unemployment figures, the Toronto Stock Exchange climbed back into the black during the day to end at 7,981.7, up 26.2 points from its previous close. The Oil & Gas subgroup had the best showing, gaining 133 points or 1.5%.

The Metals & Minerals subindex finished the week in the black, rising 39.92 points to 4,714.69. Inco joined Teck and Cominco, who have been leading the group in activity since their recently announced merger proposal. All of the issues saw more than 1.2 million shares change hands. Teck gained 11 to $15.56 on 1.9 million shares, Cominco rose 30 to $33.60 and Inco climbed 71 to $28.70.

In the junior ranks, Tenke Mining shot up a dime, or 12.5%, to 90. Phelps Dodge has inked a deal to earn up to half of BHP’s interest in the huge Tenke Fungurume copper-cobalt project in the Democratic Republic of Congo. BHP has an option to acquire a majority portion of Tenke Mining’s (TNK-T) 55% stake in the project in exchange for providing certain development funding. DRC state-owned Gnrale des carrires et des mines (Gcamines) holds the remainder of the project.

The TSE’s gold issues slipped 34.94 points to finish at 4,581.28. Not surprisingly, most of the major gold producers suffered losses. Barrick Gold fell 20 $24.90, Placer Dome lost 9 to $15.22, Franco-Nevada Mining lost 2 to $18 and Kinross Gold shed 3 to 83. Kinross reported a loss of $4.9 million (2 per share) on Wednesday, smaller than the year-ago loss of $7.8 million (3 per share).

Echo Bay Mines gained 4, or 3.3%, to $1.24. The company posted first-quarter earnings of US$3.8 million (or nil per share) on revenue of US$64.5 million, compared with a year-ago loss of US$2.7 million (4 per share) on US$51.8 million.

A late-day buying binge helped Canada’s junior exchange end the trading week in fine form. The Canadian Venture Exchange tacked on 26.36 points, or 0.9%, to finish the day at 3,126.52. The Mining Index gained 7.14 points, or 0.1%, to close at 6,478.27.

Investors continued to bid up shares in New Blue Ribbon Resources on word that the first two holes drilled on the Moose diamond project in Manitoba cut significant sulphide mineralization. Stock in the junior has almost doubled in the past two weeks on very heavy volume. New Blue Ribbon ended the week at 33, up 5 on more than 3.6 million shares.

Gulf International Minerals climbed 10 to 49 on a heavy 880,000 shares. The company recently announced that it would move forward and begin gold production at its Aprelevka mine in Tajikistan. Production is slated for the fourth quarter of the year.

Shares in Philex Gold took yet another roller coaster ride, ending the day up 23 at $1.68 on 185,200 shares. The Philippine gold miner reported that the final assays from hole 15 on the Boyongan prospect on the island of Mindanao returned 393 metres grading 1.6% copper and 2.4 grams gold.

A big percentage loser, Novawest Resources ended the day down 6 to 10 on 215,000 shares. The junior holds a large land package in the Raglan area of northern Quebec.