Trading Summary (September 25, 2001)

After mounting some decent gains in the morning and dipping into the red in the afternoon, the Toronto Stock Exchange regained its footing to finish the day off 40.03 points higher at 6,702.01, its second straight day of gains. Leading the way was the Consumer Products subindex, which gained 379.67 points or 2.6%. The gold and base metal issues both fell about 0.4% to end at 5,171.89 and 3,454.39 points, respectively. They were two of six declining subindices on the TSE.

Similar results were seen south of the border, the Dow Jones Industrial average gained 0.65% to 8,659.97, the Nasdaq edged up 0.15% to 1,501.64 and the S&P 500 climbed 0.81% to finish at 1,011.55.

Platinum dove US21 to finish at US$446 per oz. in New York. Palladium dropped US$5 to US$418 per oz. and silver lost US7 to US$4.50 per oz. Gold stood out gaining US80 2 to US$289.35 per oz. Copper was the lone base metal to make a gain on the London Metal Exchange rising US$9.50 to US$1,422 per tonne. The rest suffered modest losses.

Placer Dome remained the most active of Canada’s gold miners dropping a nickel to $19.90 on nearly 2.5 million shares. On Tuesday, Spokane Washington-based Gold Reserve said that Venezuelan state-owned Corporacion Venezolana de Guayana (CVG) announced its intention to unify Gold Reserve’s Brisas deposit with the contiguous Las Cristinas projects into a combined project containing more than 21 million oz. of gold and 2.2 billion lbs. of copper. CVG has rejected Placer Dome’s previous sale of its 70% stake in the Las Cristinas gold project and is looking at other options to develop the large low-grade deposit. For its part, Gold Reserve’s shares tacked on 14 or 11.6% to hit $1.35.

Among the other gold issues Barrick Gold fell 36 to $25.77 on more than 1.5 million shares, Kinross Gold gained 4 to $1.53, TVX Gold lost 3 pennies to 78, Franco-Nevada Mining rose 14 to $21.15, Goldcorp ended 7 higher at $17.72, Wheaton River Minerals was unchanged at 51 and Cambior dropped 3 to 82.

On Tuesday, Wheaton announced significant changes to its board and said it has agreed to sell its George Lake gold project in Nunavut to Kinross. Cambior announced that 90 workers at its Mouska gold mine in northwestern Quebec have gone on strike after rejecting the company’s final offer. Cambior says the strike shouldn’t have any significant impact on financial results. Part of the Doyon Division, Mouska produced 231,700 oz. of gold last year.

Alcan was the busiest base metal miner on the day with a trading volume of about 732,000 shares. The aluminum giant dropped a quarter to $47.25. Inco shed 65 to $19.55 and Noranda dropped 7 to $14.98. On the flip side, Teck Cominco gained 44 to $10.59 and Sherritt International rose a nickel to $3.80.

On Tuesday, Sherritt announced that Deutsche Bank Canada has dropped a claim against the company, before the courts of New Brunswick, seeking a declaration that it had been “oppressed” in its capacity as a holder of Sherritt debentures. The discontinuance involved no settlement with, payment by, or admission of wrongdoing by Sherritt. Deutsche Bank is required to pay Sherritt’s legal costs.

In diamond news, marine diamond miner Namibian Minerals soared 9 or 30% to 39. On the heels of a US$6-million bridging facility from Israel’s Leviev Group, the company’s major shareholder, Namco announced that it expects payment a US$9-million business interruption claim within seven days. The claims will cover expenses and lost profits arising from an accident that disabled its Namssol seabed crawler earlier this year.

Monday’s rally was short lived as Canada’s junior exchange once again resumed its downward spiral. The Canadian Venture Exchange dropped 18.29 points, or 0.7%, to finish the day at 2,769.03. The Mining Index lost 42.12 points, or 0.6%, to close at 7,048.39.

Inca Pacific Resources topped the most actively traded chart among junior explorers, tacking on 2 to 17 with 1.46 million shares traded. The company recently tabled mixed results from the Magistral copper-porphyry-skarn property in Peru. A new resource calculation is expected shortly.

Redstar Resources ended the day flat at 3 on 421,000 shares. The junior recently inked a deal to earn a 50% interest in the Tartan Lake platinum-palladium property by paying $75,000 over three years and spending $750,000 over four years. Lying east of Nipigon Lake in northwestern Ontario, the property is considered prospective for Lac des Isles-type disseminated sulphides containing palladium and base metal mineralization.

Shares in Poplar Resources broke out of a narrow trading range losing 3to end the day at 24 on a volume of 222,000. The company’s 65%-owned subsidiary is working the Bottenbacken polymetallic project, both in Sweden.

A big percentage loser, Intertech Minerals dropped 3 to close at 4 on 117,300 shares. The junior holds the Afridi Lake diamond project in the Northwest Territories and just settled a $24,846 debt by issuing 248,465 shares at a price of 10 each.