Trading Summary (November 25, 2003)

The diversified miners stole the show on Tuesday with a 2.31-point, or 1.2%, gain to make 188.34. The golds managed to add 1.86 points to reach 225.96. Most of the remaining market sectors ended in the red as the S&P/TSX composite index finished off 27.81 points at 7,822.32.

Queenstake Resources remained in investors’ sights, gaining a penny to 82 with nearly 11 million shares on the go, Wheaton River Minerals finished a distant second volume-wise with short of 4.7 million shares making their way a penny southward to $3.39, diamond stock Tahera was third, unchanged at 25.5 on 3.6 million shares.

Cambior made news among the golds gaining nearly $41 million on the exercise of some 13.5 million of its series B warrants. The country’s major bullion producers put in mixed results, Kinross Gold was the busiest with about 2.7 million shares making their way a penny lower to $10.91, Placer Dome rose a quarter to $22.17, and Barrick Gold finished up 36 at $28.16.

Ivanhoe Mines was the most traded base metal miner, plus 50 to $11.45 with about 2.6 million shares traded. Alcan advanced 77 to $53.94 and Falconbridge tacked on 22 to hit $24.95.

On Tuesday, Alcan said that about 94% of the 3.52 million outstanding American Depositary Shares (ADS) of Pechiney had been tendered to its 4 billion euro takeover bid for the French rival. The shares represented by the ADRs equate to about 2.5% of all Pechiney shares. The French Autorite des marches financiers is expected to publish the final results of the offer in about 2 weeks. If Alcan acquires between 66.6% and 95% of Pechiney’s total share capital and voting rights on a fully diluted basis, a offering period of at least 10 trading day will be allowed.

Niocan made a nice percentage gain on the day, vaulting 24, or 30%, to a new 52-week high of $1.04. On Tuesday, the company reported that a Quebec court has reject an appeal by the Union of Agricultural Producers (UPA) Outaouais-Laurentides against an earlier ruling in favour of the company’s niobium mining project in Oka, Quebec.

Canada’s junior exchange made an impressive rally despite the fact that bullion traded flat. The S&P-TSX Venture Exchange composite index tacked on 20.31 points, or 1.26% and closed the day at 1,631.13 with 87.2 million shares traded.

Loubel Exploration was the most actively traded issue, gaining 2 to close at 9 with 3.1 million shares traded. In late Sept., Toronto-listed Inmet Mining began drilling the company’s Lemoine property in the Chibougamau mining camp of Quebec. The program includes three holes each ranging from 1,000 to 1,200 metres. The holes are testing the same stratigraphic horizon that hosted the past producing Lemoine mine, which cranked out 758,070 tonnes of massive sulphides from 1975 to 1983 with a grade of 4.2% copper, 9.6% zinc, 4.2 grams gold and 83.4 grams silver. Inmet is earning a 60% interest in the project.

Pacific Comox Resources closed up 6 to 19 with 2.8 million shares traded. Earlier this month the company released grab sample assay results from its wholly-owned 191-ha Famosa property situated about 60 km to the south of Caborca, Sonora Mexico. Six samples averaged 1.4 grams gold per tonne and 957 grams silver per tonne. Base metal assays are pending.

Tournigan Gold closed at 50, up 5 with almost 2.2 million shares traded. The company has kicked off a scoping study at its wholly-owned Kremnica gold project in the Slovak Republic. In addition the junior had commenced an exploration program in the Kremnica South area, 5 km south of the Kremnica mine.