Trading Summary (January 08, 2004)

The diversified miners managed to pull out of their recent slide thanks in large to a plus-4% gain by Ivanhoe Mines On a whole, the group managed to regain 0.52 of a point to reach 227.65. The golds weren’t as fortunate dropping another 0.75 of a point to 225.23, its third straight day in the red. In the end, the S&P/TSX composite index slipped 2.11 points to 8,386.42 despite a 2.4% gain by the tech sector.

Northgate Exploration ended as the nation’s busiest miner, up 2 to $2.98 with a shade more than 8.1 million shares traded. The best percentage gainer among the miners was junior Northway Explorations, which recently closed a private placement of around 5.5 million units at 54 apiece for gross proceeds of nearly $3 million. Each unit comprises one share and a warrant that can be exercised six months after the deal’s close, at 66. Jones Gable & Co. acted as agent for the financing and received a cash commission plus 412,500 like-priced broker warrants good until March 19, 2005. The shares soared 43, or about 32 %, to $1.80.

Canada’s gold majors put in mixed results as the yellow metal recovered US1.80 t end at US$4213.50 per oz. in New York. Placer Dome tacked on a penny to make $23.33, Barrick Gold shed 26 to $29.01, and Kinross Gold ended unchanged at $10.16. On Thursday, Reuters reported that the Greek parliament had approved Kinross exit from its troubled operations in that country in return for 11 million euros to compensate workers of Kinross Greek subsidiary TVX Hellas.

Among the base metal miners, Alcan made news saying that it has obtained nearly 98% of French rival’s Pechiney shares under its News) in its 47.50-euro-a-share bid. Alcan also got 97.92% of its voting rights. Under its offer, Alcan is obliged to pay shareholders an additional euro per share since it got more than 95% of the shares. The Montreal-based aluminum giant plans to compulsorily acquire the remaining shares by the end of the first quarter. Alcan gained $1.11 to make $61.38.

Canada’s junior exchange recovered from yesterday’s sell-off with the rising price of bullion driving investors back into speculative gold issues. The S&P-TSX Venture Exchange composite index gained 11.36 points, or 0.64%, and closed at 1,786.40.

China Diamond surged 6 to close at 39 on 1.6 million shares traded. The junior holds interests in several diamond projects in China including the 701 diamond mine property.

Vedron Gold added 7 to close at 55 on 813,100 shares traded. The junior moved to Tier 2 status from Tier 3 and has a new stock symbol: VG. The company is working the Davidson Tsidale gold property near Timmins, Ontario.

Alamos Gold surged 10 to close at $2.75 on 616,000 shares traded. The company is currently drilling the large Salamandra gold property in Mexico.