Trading Summary (September 02, 2003)

A US$2.50-per-oz. drop by gold to US$372.80 per oz. in New York sent Toronto’s gold index 3.65 points, or 1.8% of value, lower to 198.84 on Tuesday. The diversified miners managed to grab 0.78 of a point to reach 154.26. In the end, the S&P/TSX composite index added 56.54 points to make 7,566.86.

Shares in Wheaton River Minerals picked up where they left off before the holiday, ranking as the most active issue with about 7.6 million shares traded. The issue returned Friday’s gains, slipping 8 to $2.25.

Next in line was Eldorado gold, which shed 6 to hit $3.59 on nearly half as many shares. Eldorado recently completed a financing involving 25 million units at $3.10 apiece for gross proceeds of $77.5 million. The deal’s underwriters, which were led by Orion Securities, and National Bank Financial received a cash commission of $3.1 million. The net proceeds will go toward construction of the Kisladag gold mine in Turkey and for general corporate purposes.

Going the other way was Queenstake Resources, which made 6 to finish at $97 on a trading volume of about 2.9 million shares, enough to rank as the TSX’s third most-traded mining issue.

One the exchange’s biggest percentage gainers was Gitennes Exploration, which jumped 8, or nearly 35% of value, to 31. There was no immediate news out of the junior. Other nice percentage gains were seen by Asia Pacific Resources, up a penny, or more than 18%, to 6.5, and Corona Gold, which jumped 15, or 30%, to 65.

On Tuesday, Asia Pac announced the resignation of Richard Knight as a non-executive director effective Sept. 30th. Knight plans to focus full time on his recent appointment as Managing Director of Inco Australia Management. He will remain as an advisor to Asia Pac’s board.

On Friday, Corona and 49% partner Vancouver-listed Harte Resources said a delayed drill program on their Sugar Zone property will begin in late October or early November. The program was originally planned for the summer, but delays in obtaining a temporary bridge building permit put the kibosh on that.

Teck Cominco‘s B series was the most traded base metal issue, gaining a quarter to reach $13.70 with short of 2 million shares on the go. Teck recently announce a new, low-cost process for the direct extraction of zinc metal from sulphide ores via bioleaching followed by solvent extraction and electrowinning. The HydroZinc process does not require grinding and flotation of ore. A small pilot plant produced zinc with total direct operating costs of 20 per lb. Patents are pending.

Shares in Montreal-based aluminum giant Alcan advanced 7 to $50.30 despite French takeover target Pechiney shooting down the company’s sweetened bid of 47-48 euros per share.

Canada’s junior exchange managed to start the trading week off on an up tick with advancing stocks beating declining issues by a 264-to-332 margin. The S&P-TSX Venture Exchange composite index added 1.47 points, or 0.11%, and closed at 1,318.37.

Verena Minerals added 6.5 to close at 18 on nearly 5.6 million shares traded. The junior got a boost after being named a top pick by Union Securities technical analyst. The company is looking to work the advanced Bonfim gold-tungsten project near Natal, Brazil.

Investors sold off shares in Committee Bay Resources following news of drill results from the Committee Bay gold property in Nunavut. A 1,477-metre drill program has returned impressive values from the Three Bluffs zone. The junior tested the strike and depth extension of mineralization discovered in the mid-1990s, when a dozen drill holes identified gold-bearing iron formation over a 420-metre strike-length section of the showing. The previous holes averaged 1.22 grams gold per tonne over 57.3 metres. Within the broad zone, two higher-grade sections yielded up to 4.8 grams gold over 6 metres and 9.3 grams gold over 2 metres. The latest bout of drilling extended the zone to 700 metres in length, down to a depth of 50 metres below surface. The best results came from three holes collared along strike for 240 metres starting 50 metres east of hole 3. The western most hole, #4, cut an impressive 19.93 grams gold over 5 metres. The amount of sulphide and silicification increased moving east with hole 5 returning 45.5 grams gold over 6.9 metres and hole 6 yielding 27.4 grams gold over 9.4 metres. Shares in the company fell 3 to close at 77 on a volume of 761,076.