Trading Summary (June 02, 2004)

Toronto’s gold stocks fell 3.17 points, or 1.6%, to 200.74 as the yellow metal lost US$3.10 to end at US$391.30 per oz. in New York on Wednesday. The diversified miners followed suit with a 2.92-point fall to 219.40. Overall, the S&P-TSX Composite index shed 43.55 points to end at 8,374.83.

Wheaton River Gold Mines and Iamgold remained the most traded mining stocks. Wheaton fell 12 to $3.87, while Iamgold tacked on 9 to hit $7.64. Wheaton traded around 11.5 million shares, about twice the trading volume Iamgold saw. Iamgold’s spurned suitor Golden Star Resources fell 32, or 5%, to $6.22.

Tahera was next in line volume-wise with more than 3.8 million shares jumping 3, or 9.4%, to 35. There was no immediate news out of the company.

Heading south was South American Gold & Copper, which lost a penny, or 9%, to 10 with nearly 1.9 million shares changing hands. Recent drilling on the Pimenton project in Chile failed to cut significant mineralization.

It was hard to pick a winner among the gold issues, major producers included. Barrick Gold was the busiest watching 2.6 million shares slip 15 to $27.93, Kinross Gold dropped 20 to $7.87, and Placer Dome rounded out the trio with a 12 fall to $21.10.

Likewise, SouthernEra Resources fell 12, or 3%, to $3.90. Drilling to test gold-in-soil geochemical anomalies within the main Mainou Vein gold mineralized trend on the Koumba gold project in Gabon returned narrow intervals of low gold grades. The best result was a 2-metres section running 2.3 grams gold per tonne. Most of the remaining holes yielded less than 1 gram over similar widths. SouthernEra has a 95% interest in the 625-sq.-km gold exploration permit. The company will further evaluate the drill results before it decides how to proceed at Koumba.

Zaruma Resources put in the biggest percentage gain among the miners soaring a nickel, or nearly 22%, to 28. Zaruma recently intersected significant gold mineralization at the Centenario and Golfo de Oro targets, part of the San Antonio project in Mexico.