Trading Summary (July 30, 2001)

The Toronto Stock Exchange fell 40.86 points to 7,641.3 in thin trading on Monday. By day’s end, six of the TSE’s 14 subindexes were in the black. The base metal issues were among that number, but just barely, rising 12.83 points. The gold issues were less fortunate, falling 73.93 points, or 1.6%.

The precious metals were lower across the board in New York. Gold Platinum dove US$28, or 5.6%, to US$470 per oz. and palladium fell US$17, or 3.8%, to US$428 per oz. Gold lost US$1.20 to US$265.80 per oz. and silver shed a penny to US$4.20 per oz. All of the base metals suffered smaller losses on the London Metal Exchange.

Barrick Gold led the country’s gold majors with 772,627 shares traded. The stock lost 45 to $23. Others heading south were Kinross Gold, off 3 to $1.21, Placer Dome, down 50 to $15.62, Franco-Nevada Mining, 35 lower at $20.25, and Normandy Mining, which shed 50 to $9.

The smaller producers saw some decent percentage gainers, including Viceroy Resources, up 2 pennies, or 15%, to 15, Hope Bay Gold, up 4, or 13%, to 34, and Wheaton River Minerals, up 6, or 9%, at 71.

Falconbridge, with nearly 760,000 shares on the go, was the country’s busiest base metal issue. The stock gained 32 to $17.04. Alcan gained 20 to $57.35. Inco found a penny and hit $25.60. On the flip side were Teck’s B series, which fell 4 to $11.75, Aur Resources, off 13 to $2.65, and Breakwater Resources, which slid 4 pennies to 93.

Late on Monday, Noranda posted lower second-quarter earnings on lower metal prices. Noranda net income for the three months ended June 30 was $28 million (or 9 per share), compared with year-ago earnings of $84 million (33 per share). Revenue between the two periods fell to $1.64 billion from $1.87 billion.

Also on Monday, Aur Resources announced that it had picked up an additional 4.3 million shares of Thundermin Resources, bringing its stake in the company to 28.3%. The shares are in lieu of repayment of a $500,000 loan and additional $228,557 owed by Thundermin to Aur.

Canada’s junior exchange failed to snap out of its summer-time slide as all indexes ended the day in the red. The Canadian Venture Exchange ended the session down 12.71 points, or 0.4%, to close at 3,054.14. The Mining Index dropped 5.46 points, or 0.1%, to close at 7,304.86.

A nice percentage gainer, Patricia Mining jumped 9 to 34 on 80,000 shares. The junior recently tabled the final drill results from the North Shear target on the Island gold project near Wawa, Ont. All of the five holes, which tested the zone over a 250-metre strike length to a vertical depth of 200 metres, carried significant gold values.

Consolidated Global Minerals lost 2 to end the day at 15 on 161,000 shares. The junior recently closed a $500,000 financing. The proceeds will be used to continue exploration on its ground in the Northwest Territories and Tunisia.

Shares in Starfield Resource took a tumble, losing 3 to 55 on a volume of 211,000. The company is expected to table a new resource figure for its Ferguson Lake nickel-platinum-palladium-copper property in Nunavut any time now.

The anticipation of drill results from the El Tambor gold property in Guatemala continues to spur interest in Radius Explorations. The Simon Ridgway-led company ended the day up 7 to $1.12 with 51,000 shares changing hands. The company has completed seven holes at the Lupita zone and will soon be testing the Sastre zone.