Trading Summary (March 24, 2003)

The TSX was swept up in a tide of gloom in the North American markets that was caused by the widespread realization over the weekend that the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq wouldn’t be as easy or as bloodless as many had hoped.

While major indices south of the border plunged on average about 3.5%, the TSX Composite Index dropped 171.86 points, or only 2.63%, to 6,364.04 as the gold stocks provided support. The golds still lost ground, however, falling 2% to 147.59 points.

Wheaton River Minerals was the most-active mining stock on the TSX, and the second-most active overall. The emerging mid-tier gold and silver miner rose 3 cents to $1.16 on no news.

Next after Wheaton on the most-active miner list was Meridian Gold, which tumbled 14.6% to $13.45 in the wake of a stunning defeat in a non-binding referendum on the Esquel project, held in the city of Esquel on March 23. From a 75% turnout, some 80% voted against developing the mine.

After the bell, Dublin-based Moydow Mines International announced that it was selling its 50% stake in the Ntotoroso property in Ghana to Newmont Mining for C$20 million. Moydow closed the day at 88 cents on no volume (for a C$24-million market capitalization), while Newmont was up 17 cents to US$24.54 in New York.

Canada’s junior exchange continued its loosing streak as advancing stocks lost to declining stock 224 to 315. The S&P-TSX Venture Exchange composite index shed 9.56 points, or 0.91%, and closed at 1,045.14 with 30.7 million shares traded.

Spider Resources was the day’s volume leader with 2.1 million shares traded. The junior and joint venture partner, over the counter-listed, KWG Resources have launched a 1,000 metre diamond drilling program on their Spider #3 base metal prospect in the James Bay Lowlands of Northern Ontario. Spider lost a penny and closed at 12.

Hawkeye Gold lost a penny and closed at 9 with 754,000 shares traded. Hawkeye is searching for diamonds on its Yankee property on Victoria Island with joint venture partner Diamonds North Resources.

Goldmico closed at 12, down 1 on 376,000 shares. Investors are waiting for drill results from the company’s Balabag project in the Philippines.

Northern Empire Minerals closed down a penny to $1.18 on 360,000. The company recently completed a financing priced at $1.50 and worth $5.45 million. Proceeds will be used to fund the company’s diamond exploration projects in Nunavut, Northwest Territories and Quebec.

IMA Exploration lost 5 and closed at $0.99 with 329,750 shares traded. Soil sampling has identified a highly anomalous area at its Navidad project in Patagonia, Argentina, that measures 1,200-by-500 metres with values consistently greater than 2 grams silver per tonne. These high silver values in soil samples correlate very well with anomalous copper (greater than 50 ppm) values. The soil samples were taken at 50 metre intervals along lines spaced 200 metres apart. IMA plans to increase the density and size of this soil grid in order to better define drill targets in combination with geological mapping, rock sampling, trenching, and geophysics.