STOCK MARKETS — Labrador winter puts freeze on investor interest

Except for the odd pocket of excitement, western markets are following their usual boring shuffle through the fall period.

For the trading week ended Nov. 14, the Vancouver Stock Exchange resource and composite indices both finished little-changed at 1,254.47 and 780.10, respectively.

Labrador explorers continued to slide over the period amid a lack of ground-breaking news. The infamous Labrador winter is also taking its toll, causing delays to planned drill programs and even chasing companies off their properties in some cases.

Poor weather has forced joint-venture partners Tapestry Ventures and Portman Explorations to postpone further drilling on their ANAK-1 property in Labrador until next January. Recent drilling on the property returned mixed results with values of up to 0.15% copper, 0.09% nickel and 0.02% cobalt in one hole.

Tapestry slipped 19 cents to $1.41, while Portman lost 11 cents to close at 52 cents.

Poor weather forced Cartaway Container to move the drill on its Cirque property to a more sheltered area, and the company expects to restart drilling efforts shortly. Cartaway slipped a nickel to close at $1.55.

NDT Ventures, which holds one of the largest ground positions in the Labrador play, slid to a new low of $1.47 before closing down 33 cents at $1.50.

The company released results from drilling on the Luk claims with joint-venture partner Takla Star Resources. The best interval graded 0.27% nickel, 0.1% copper and 0.011% cobalt over 8 metres.

Takla Star dropped 80 cents on the results to close at $3.35.

Joint-venture partners Castle Rock Explorations and United Compass Resources bucked the downtrend in Labrador issues after reporting “positive massive sulphide” intercepts on their Okak property.

Castle Rock gained 39 cents at $1.28, while United Compass added 20 cents to close at $1.93. Assay results from the drilling are pending.

Micro Minerals added 34 cents at 63 cents after acquiring two properties in the Voisey Bay region of Labrador. The company plans to test the property as soon as weather permits.

First Western Minerals also bucked the trend, vaulting to a high of $1.39 before finishing up 35 cents at 95 cents. The company has completed a private placement of 1.5 million units at 55 cents each to fund work on its property holdings in Labrador and the Labrador Trough area of Quebec. The issue is also being touted as a possible high-flyer by a Florida-based investment letter writer.

Visual reports of chalcopyrite mineralization in drill holes on the Hearne Hill project near Smithers, B.C., pushed Booker Gold Explorations up $2.05 to $5.75. The company is following up several good intersections (including 304 metres grading 0.75% copper, 3.15 grams silver and 0.32 gram gold) on a new zone to the northeast of a known low-grade copper-gold porphyry deposit.

Colossal Resources took off, leaping $2.40 to close at $6.50. The company recently closed a 1.4-million unit private placement, raising $5.5 million for its cobalt slag project in Zambia. The company expects to begin producing copper and cobalt in the first quarter of 1996 from an old slag dump using two 15-tonne, open-arc, electric furnaces.

Assay results from drilling on the Strike property, north of Stewart, B.C., left Navarre Resources off 40 cents at 25 cents. The best results from the A Kicker zone include 5.51% lead-zinc and 1.4 oz. silver over 2.3 ft. in hole 95-16, and a 1.6-ft. interval in hole 95-17 grading 6.65% lead-zinc and 0.25 oz. silver.

Joint-venture partners Teuton Resources and Minvita Resources continued to slide, as the market awaits assay results from a 13-hole drill program on its Red Mountain area gold property near Stewart, B.C.

Minvita slipped 21 cents to $1.65, while Teuton finished at $1.18 for a loss of 17 cents.

Stellar Gold leapt $1.44 to close at $4.40 on news that BHP Minerals is reviewing possible participation in the Palawin lateritic nickel-cobalt project in the Philippines. The Palawin deposit hosts an estimated 187 million tonnes grading 1.4% nickel and 0.1% cobalt. Stellar can acquire the project from Longpoint Mining of Manila in return for treasury stock.