Trading Summary (October 08, 2002)

A US$3.80-per-oz. slide by gold to US$318.30 per oz. in New York sent Toronto gold stocks running for shelter on Tuesday. The Toronto Stock Exchange’s Gold Index led seven declining subindices, dropping 8.61 points or nearly 5% to 165.54. The base metal miners escaped, shedding just 0.22 of a point to 107.89. In the end, the S&P/TSX Composite Index was another 1.4 points lower at 5,830.57.

Investors scurried from the golds pushing Kinross Gold 27 or nearly 9% lower to $2.77 with about 5.4 million shares traded, enough to rank fourth on the TSX’s most active list. Other gold’s caught in the vortex were: Barrick Gold, off a penny short of a dollar to $23.40; Bema Gold, down 11 to $1.57; Eldorado Gold, minus 4 to $1.46; Echo Bay Mines, 16 lighter at $1.42; and Placer Dome, which shed 35 to $13.40.

Bema Gold recently announced a share-swap deal to join forces with Vancouver junior EAGC Ventures. The deal hinges on, among other things, EAGC’s acquisition US$67 million acquisition of some South African gold assets.

Cambior and Mazarin got swept away falling a dime and a penny, respectively. Cambior finished at $1.37 and Mazarin came in at 33. The two announced a 21% boost to mineral reserves at their equally held Niobec mine in Quebec.

The base metal miners fared a bit batter, putting in mixed results. On the plus side were: Alcan, plus 73 to $38.23 with more than 1.3 million shares traded to lead the way; Teck Cominco‘s B series, a penny higher at $10.30; and Inco, which gained 20 to $25.40. Falconbridge and Noranda edged up 1 and 2, respectively, to make $14.20 and $14.16.

Canada’s junior exchange faced another onslaught of sell orders with very few buyers. The S&P TSX Venture Exchange composite index lost 20.46 points, or 2.2% and closed at 912.73.

Spider Resources added 1 to close at 5 on over 2.3 million shares. The company, along with joint venture partner KWG Resources recently announced that 24 of 52 regional rock samples selected from their jointly held 45 sq km property near Wawa, Ontario, contain diamonds. In total, 565 diamonds were recovered from 24 samples, of which 50 are classified as macrodiamonds.

Kalahari Resources added 1 to close at 7 on 586,000 shares. The junior is working the Beck diamond project in the Northwest Territories.

A drop in the price of gold hit the junior explorers with Rubicon Minerals dropping 9 to close at 80 on 263,000 shares. The junior holds a large land position in the Red Lake mining camp of Ontario. National Gold lost 3 to close at 27 on 171,000 shares. The junior holds several early stage gold project in the Purcell basin of southeastern BC and a stake in the Salamandra gold project in Mexico.