Golds, base metals carry Toronto exchange lower

The Toronto Stock Exchange 300 index slipped 31.65 points during the March 8-14 report period to end the week at 9,393.83.

With gold taking another tumble, the TSE’s gold and precious metals sub-index dropped 140.98 points to 4,205.06. The yellow metal slipped $4.05 to trade at a London morning fix of US$288.70 per oz. on March 15.

Canada’s major producers fared just as badly: Barrick Gold slipped 70 to $24.20; Placer Dome dropped 75 to $12.75; and Kinross Gold fell 8 to $2.37.

Pan American Silver closed down 45 at $5.70. The silver miner recently announced it had secured a 71.8% stake in the suspended Huaron silver mine in Peru and that it expects to resume production by year-end, thus doubling its silver output in that country to 7 million oz.

It was a relatively quiet week on the base metal markets, as nickel eased off following a long run-up. The London Metal Exchange morning price on March 15 was US$4.58 per lb., down 13 from the previous week. Copper made up for nickel’s slide by adding 2, whereas lead and zinc were both fractionally higher.

The week was generally unkind to the TSE base metal issues, with the sub-group falling 25.99 points to finish at 3,302.26. Alcan was 30 higher at $46 despite Euro-roadblocks placed in the way of its planned merger with Pechiney and Alusuisse. However, Inco, the other sector heavyweight, moved lower by $2.40 to close at $21.80. Its Inco VBN shares were down 75 at $6.40, reflecting continued pessimism about the future of the Voisey’s Bay nickel deposit in Labrador, and nickel rival Falconbridge was off 50 at $18.25.

On the upside, Rio Algom added $3 to finish at $17.50 in relatively heavy trading, though the company did not release any news. Another strong gain was registered by Cominco, which added 95 to finish at $20.30.

Junior Eden Roc Mineral roared back to life, jumping 600% to $1.12 on the back of a reorganization and share-consolidation program. On March 10, the company consolidated its shares on a 1-for-10 basis and significantly reduced its debt by issuing post-consolidated shares to its lenders.

Montreal-listed Freewest Resources continued its surge forward, rising 10 to 98 for a 2-week gain of 24. In the previous period, the junior announced it had outlined a chargeability anomaly at its half-owned Tyko Lake polymetallic property. Also, a horblendite showing was found to contain up to 3.24% nickel, 1% copper and 2.34 grams combined platinum, palladium and gold.