Trading Summary (October 28, 2003)

Trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange was heavy on Tuesday, with 290 million shares rolled through the market, and only three sectors — energy, gold, and consumer staples — falling back. The TSX Composite index advanced 54.98 points to close at 7,719.17 points.

For the second day in a row, the base metals were among the market leaders, as the TSX Metals and Mining index picked up 2.54 points to finish at 179.54, for a gain of 1.4% on the day. Information technology, health care, and industrial stocks also advanced strongly, while the declines were all in “defensive” market sectors.

Teck Cominco led the base metal miners again on Tuesday, rising 50 to close at $16.50. Uranium producer Cameco tacked on $1.20 to close at $55, and announced earnings of $33 million on revenues of $232 million in the third quarter. The company is showing a $175-million profit on revenues of $555 million in the first three quarters of 2003.

The TSX Gold index was off 2.02 points to 205.02, as the gold price fell despite news from the United States Federal Reserve that it planned to keep short-term interest rates near 1% whatever that might mean for the U.S. dollar. Bullion prices on the London market were fixed at US$384.40 in the afternoon, and fell in later New York trading to around US$383 at the close.

Eldorado Gold was alone among the TSX Gold index stocks to post a gain — and that was only a penny, putting the junior producer at $4.42. The major hit was taken by the larger mid-tiers, with Meridian Gold off 41 at $16.15, Goldcorp down 33 at $20.47, and Glamis Gold falling 29 to $18.65.

Several smaller producers also fell back sharply. Bema Gold was down 7 at $4.30, Wheaton River Minerals 6 at $2.73, and Cambior 9 at $3.84. Kinross Gold took the worst loss among the senior producers, falling 19 to $10.48.

Off the index, junior producer Queenstake Resources dropped 3 to close at 62 on a volume of 10.3 million shares. McWatters Mining was heavily traded, with 2.2 million shares moving, but was unchanged at 4.5 Another off-index producer, Thistle Mining shed a nickel to close at 47.

Nevsun Resources posted a $1.23 gain on a volume of 2 million shares after announcing it had intersected thick zones of massive and semi-massive sulphides at the Northwest Zone target on its Bisha property in Eritrea. Assay results are expected in mid-November.

Canada’s junior exchange lost some ground alongside a slumping bullion price. Advancing stocks lost to declining stocks 384 to 429 with 84 million shares changing hands. The Venture Exchange S&P Composite Index lost 2.99 points, or 0.20%, and finish the day at 1498.55.

Spider Resources and joint venture partner KWG Resources have tabled assay results from results the most recent discovery drill hole on the McFaulds #3 anomaly, located about 1 km southwest of McFaulds #1 base metal occurrence. The geophysical anomaly measures 600 by 50 metres. The drill hole collar was located on the northeastern end of the anomaly. Water conditions prevented testing the center of the anomaly. This will be completed after freeze-up. The zinc-rich mineralization cut 25.75 metres averaging 4.83% zinc, 0.50% copper, 0.07 gram gold and 2.73 grams silver, starting 128.75 metres down-hole. The copper rich interval cut 7.95 metres averaging 1.5% copper, 0.12% zinc, 0.32 gram gold and 8.47 grams silver, starting 154.50 metres down-hole. Spider closed the day at 13, down 1.5 with 1.89 million shares traded while KWG finished down 1.5 to 22.5 on 448,540 shares.

Cangold Resources closed down a penny to 22.5 with 1.63 million shares traded. The company tabled assay results from the Thorn property in northwest BC, with partner Rimfire Minerals. Results from one hole of an eight hole, 874.5 metre program at the Oban Breccia zone returned 38.6 metres of 1.22 grams gold and 103.2 grams silver, starting 6.1 metres down-hole. This included 14.0 metres of 1.97 grams gold 190.0 grams silver, 1.33% lead and 0.77% zinc. Similar mineralization was intersected as deep as 130 metres down dip in two additional drill holes on section. Results from these two holes are expected in mid-November. Rimfire finished the day flat at 95 with 13,900 shares traded.

Shares in American Bonanza Gold Mines closed at 40.5, down 1.5 with 1.4 million shares traded. The company is currently drilling the Copperstone gold project in Arizona, as well as the Big Bar project in Nevada.

Aurogin Resources closed up 4 to 15.5 with 1.38 million shares traded. The company recently announced it will raise up to $630,000 through two private placements. The first is a $531,700 private placement, consisting of 1,7 million units at a price of $0.30 per unit, each unit to consist of 2 flow-through common shares, one ordinary common share and 3 non-transferable share purchase warrants, with each warrant to entitle the holder to purchase one additional ordinary common share at a price of $0.15 for a period of one year from closing. The second is a $100,000 private placement that will consist of 1,000,000 units priced at $0.10 per unit, each unit to consist of one ordinary common share and one non-transferable share purchase warrant, with each warrant to entitle the holder to purchase one additional ordinary common share at a price of $0.115 for a period of one year from closing. The proceeds from these private placements will be used for drilling and the Rambler project in Newfoundland, geochemical surveys and ongoing exploration at the Las Minas and Rio Paz projects in Guatemala, and for working capital purposes.