Trading Summary (January 16, 2002)

Paced by a US$3.10-per-oz. gain in the gold price in New York, the Toronto Stock Exchange‘s Gold & Precious Minerals subindex vaulted 111.79 points or 2% on Wednesday. After testing US$290 per oz., gold settled at US$287.50 per oz. in the big apple after the Bank of England sold 20 tonnes of gold at an unimpressive US$283.50 per oz. Overall the TSE fell 59.9 points to close at 7,584 points. The Metals & Minerals subindex shed 47.25 points or 1.1%. It was one of ten subindices to fall on the day; the biggest loser was the technology sector, off more than 2%.

Canada’s gold majors were well represented in the TSE’s top ten traded list. Kinross Gold gained a nickel to $1.45 on nearly 4.4 million shares; Barrick Gold was next in line climbing 30 to $28 on about 4.2 million shares; Placer Dome was 40 higher at $19.75 with around 4.1 million shares on the go; Franco-Nevada Mining added 85 to hit $26.70; and TVX Gold rose a penny to 81.

Also making the grade was junior Bema Gold, which grabbed 4 to reach 60 with 1.8 million shares changing hands. Bema recently wrapped up a share offering for gross proceeds of more than $8 million. The $7.5 million in net proceeds will be used for further exploration and development drilling at the high grade Julietta Mine in Far East Russia.

Gold’s glitter shinnied on the smaller producers as well. Nice percentage gains were put in by: Viceroy Resources, up 3.5 or 25% to 17.5; Wheaton River Minerals gained a dime or 16% to 72; and St Andrew Goldfields gained 3.5 or 29% to 15.5.

Inmet Mining was busy after it announced that the British Columbia Supreme Court had awarded it $88.2 million in a dispute with Homestake Canada, which was swallowed by Barrick last year. Barrick is reviewing the judgment in relation to a possible appeal. The British Columbia Supreme Court ruled that Homestake failed to live up its end of a 1997 deal to buy the Troilus gold mine in northern Quebec. Inmet shares surged 88 or more than 24% to $4.48, a 73 improvement on its last 52-week high. Trading volume was a brisk 1.6 million shares.

Teck Cominco’s B series was the most traded of the base metal issues. The stock rose 15 to $13.30 on about 1.2 million shares. Alcan dropped $1.16 to $55.77 on less than 1 million shares. On Wednesday, Alcan announced that it will table its fourth quarter financial results to analysts on Jan. 22.

Other gainers in the group were Falconbridge, up 15 to $16.55 and Aur Resources, 22 higher at $3.67. The base metals were mostly lower in Europe. Lead managed to gain US$2 to US$526per tonne.

Advancers beat decliners 199 to 195 today on Canada’s junior exchange but the S&P-CDNX Composite Index still lost ground, dipping 2.64 points, or 0.2%, to close at 1085.49.

Donner Minerals remained steady at 30 with 521,000 shares traded. Donner and Falconbridge have inked a deal to explore for Voisey’s Bay type nickel-copper-cobalt deposits in Labrador outside of the Voisey’s Bay and South Voisey Bay areas.

Northern Empire Minerals jumped 11 and closed at 68 on 446,000 shares. The company has acquired interest in the 550,000-acre Coronation Diamond district project from a private company. The property is situated north and adjacent to Ashton’s Kim property, which hosts the recently discovered Artemisia kimberlite, and encompasses the northern boundary of Ashton’s Eokuk property in the Coronation Diamond District of Nunavut. The property is already subject to an option agreement with Stornoway Ventures, whereby Stornoway has the right to earn a 70% interest in the property.

Starfield Resources tacked on a nickel and closed at 77 with 437,000 shares crossing the floor. The company is gearing up to resume drilling on its Ferguson Lake nickel-copper-platinum-palladium property in Nunavut.

Marum Resources found a penny and closed at 10 on 298,000 shares. The company and partner Shear Minerals have picked up more ground in Alberta bringing their land position to 1,800 sq. km. The property now adjoins Ashton Mining of Canada’s Birch Mountain claim block. A review of the aeromagnetic data has so far resulted in the selection of 16 priority anomalies of which 9 are high priority targets. These will be targeted for immediate ground magnetic verification and drilling.