Trading Summary (October 16, 2001)

Investors evidently shrugged off some of their bio-terror ennui today, as a strong, broad rally developed across North America. Rising above the psychological 7,000-point barrier, the Toronto Stock Exchange‘s 300 index jumped up 71.97, or 1%, to 7,027.60 points, led by both the gold and base metal miners as well as the industrial-products subsector.

The gold majors enjoyed a uniformly good day despite the renewed weakness in gold prices of late: Barrick Gold rose 65 to $26.15; Placer Dome jumped up 59 to $18.90; Franco-Nevada Mining was up 10 to $22.50; Cambior added 2 to reach 85; and Kinross Gold advanced 3 to $1.43.

On the base metal side, Inco bounced back from the $20 range reached in late September and today added 90 to close at $22.05. Other advancing issues included sector heavyweight Alcan, up 55 to $47.95, Noranda, rising 14 to $14.50, and Falconbridge, up 55 to $14.90, despite today’s announcement that it had lost $24 million in the third quarter. In the negative column was Teck Cominco, which fell 10 to $10.40 and is starting to look like a bargain again on technical terms.

The volume leader in mining sector was Robert Friedland’s Ivanhoe Mines, which closed up 9 to $2.50 in the wake of yesterday’s announcement that it was getting more deeply involved in copper-gold projects in Mongolia.

One of the top percentage gainers of the day was First Quantum Minerals, which rose 30 to $2.40 on the back of new, long, high-grade copper-cobalt intersections encountered during drilling near its Nkana mine in Zambia.

Canada’s junior exchange managed to stage a modest rally with trading volumes remaining on the light side. The Canadian Venture Exchange ended the day up 11.09 points, or 0.4% to finish at 2,885.97. The Mining Index followed suit gaining 59.11 points, or 0.8%, to close at 7,206.92.

Moving higher on news that hole 8 into the Gold Mountain porphyry target near Nelson BC cut 2 metres grading 172.1 grams gold per tonne, Sultan Minerals added 1 to end the day at 41 on 576,500 shares. The junior recently closed a $700,000 financing to fund further drilling.

International Wayside Gold Mines lost 1 to end the day at 10 on 375,000 shares. The Frank Callaghan-led company is currently drilling its Cariboo gold property near Quesnel in north-central BC.

Masuparia Gold ended the day flat at 10 on 366,500 shares. The junior reported mixed results from its Greywacke gold project in Saskatchewan. Hole 45 cut 11.3 grams gold over 5.7 metres, while hole 46 returned 1 metre grading 1.86 grams gold.

Continuing to gain steam ahead of drill results from the Rio Tabaconas polymetallic project in northern Peru, IMA Exploration jumped a penny to close at 58 on 197,700 shares. Assay results from the first few holes are expected this week.