Trading Summary (January 03, 2002)

The Toronto Stock Exchange rebounded form a slow start to the year by posting a 144.31-point or 1.9% gain of Thursday. The TSE 300 composite index finished the day at 7,791.1 points. Just two of the TSE’s fourteen subindices finished in the red. The tech-heavy Industrial Products subindex led the way gaining nearly 4.8%. The golds put in a nice performance grabbing 2.6% while the base metal issues rose 1.7%.

Placer Dome took top honours as the most active gold miner with about 2.8 million shares changing hands. The issue tacked on 83 to hit $18.43. Franco-Nevada Mining gained 33 to $23.78 after news of a dime increase in Newmont Mining’s bid for Australia’s Normandy Mining. Newmont, recently received the thumbs up from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission for the Normandy takeover and subsequent merger with Franco. For their part, Normandy shares climbed 50 to $15.50.

Barrick Gold rounded out the top three list of the most actively traded mining stocks with more than 1.8 million shares traded. The stock climbed 70 to $26.40. Barrick is backing South Africa’s rival bid for Normandy via an alliance that would see it take over sole managerial control of the Kalgoorlie Super Pit in Western Australia — the country’s single-largest gold producer.

In world of base metals, Alcan gained 70 to $58.14 on about 856,000 to take the volume lead. Putting in a nice percentage gain was Falconbridge, up 68 or 4.2% to $16.84.

On Wednesday, Falconbridge announced plans to reopen its Falcondo operations in the Dominican Republic at the end of January as scheduled. A three-month shutdown at the operation began in late October thanks to weak nickel prices and high oil prices.

Another nice percentage mover was zinc miner Breakwater Resources, which rose 3 pennies or almost 14% to $25. In November, Breakwater turned in a whopping $102-million loss for the first nine months of 2001. About $70 million of the 9-month loss came in the form of non-cash writedowns, the largest of which were the metallurgically troublesome Caribou mine in New Brunswick ($53.7 million,) and the Nanisivik mine in Nunavut ($11.5 million).

Canada’s junior exchange continued to surge on moderate volume. The S&P-CDNX Composite Index gained 18.60 points, or 1.8% to close at 1061.18.

Investors continued to bid up shares in Donner Minerals. The company ended the day at 27, up 5 on 918,400 shares. Donner holds a majority stake in the South Voisey Bay nickel sulphide project in Labrador.

A nice percentage gainer, Rhonda added 7 to close at 50 on 183,700 shares. The company is in the midst of raising $700,000 to continue exploration over its wholly owned Inulik diamond property in the heart of the Coronation district of Nunavut.

Poplar Resources gained another 3 on the back of yesterday’s 2 jump as investors appear to be applauding news that 19 of the first 20 till samples collected from its wholly-owned Nottaway diamond project in the James Bay lowlands of Quebec returned kimberlite indicator minerals. Shares in the junior ended the day at 18 on a volume of 350,500.

Profit taking once again hit Northern Empire Minerals with stock in the company falling 5 at 65 on 129,277 shares. In the first two days of trading in the New Year, shares have fallen 17. The junior, along with partners Chilean Gold, Stornoway Ventures, Wind River Resources and International Samuel Exploration inked a deal to earn a 20% stake in the Jubilee diamond property in Nunavut.

Rockwell Ventures ended the day unchanged at 16 with 365,500 shares changing hands. The Hunter Dickinson-led junior recently raised $1 million to explore the Haut Plateau nickel-copper-cobalt property in east-central Quebec.