HMINING MARKETS & INVESTMENT NEWS — EASTERN MARKETS — Markets react to TVX-Normandy deal

The biggest story of the April 21-27 report period was the new partnership between Australia’s largest gold producer, Normandy Mining, and chronic underperformer TVX Gold.

In a complex deal, Normandy is making its first major move into the Americas by paying cash for minority interests in five TVX mines in Brazil, Chile and Canada. Among other benefits, TVX will pocket US$180 million and receive a US$150-million line of credit from Normandy. Reaction to the news was mixed, with Normandy jumping 50 cents to $12.75 and TVX easing off 11 cents to $1.64.

Meanwhile, gold prices slid back US$1.10 to US$282.80 per oz. on the London morning fix of April 28. Canada’s major producers had a mixed week: Barrick Gold was up 90 cents to $29.10 on the release of record quarterly results; Placer Dome rose 80 cents to $19.85; Kinross Gold was up 5 cents to $3.05; Cambior lost 30 cents to hit $5.50; Franco-Nevada Mining lost 80 cents to hit $25.50; and Euro-Nevada rose 20 cents to $23.

Base metal prices continued to show stronger vital signs, with nickel up 11 cents to US$2.42 per lb., copper up a penny to US69 cents per lb., and zinc up 3 cents to US49 cents per lb. Lead remained unchanged at US24 cents per lb.

Several of Canada’s base metal majors showed advances during the week: Inco climbed $1.05 to hit $25.35; Falconbridge shot up $2 to $19.25; Rio Algom rose 40 cents to $18.45; and Cominco rose 70 cents to $23.20. Showing declines were Teck’s B shares, which dropped a dime to $12.15, and Boliden, which lost 40 cents to fall to $2.05.

With the mid-term prospects for zinc looking promising, Breakwater Resources had another good week, rising 14 cents to $1.77. The zinc miner took advantage of recent share strength to raise $18 million by issuing 10.9 million shares at $1.65 each, with an option to acquire another 1.2 million share at the same price.

Among the juniors, Nuinsco Resources plummeted 41 cents to 67 cents as the company released more drill results from its Lac Rocher nickel property in Quebec. Nuinsco’s task of tracing the structure of massive-sulphide mineralization into a subsurface feeder zone is being complicated by faulting.

Tahera reported that its partner, Kennecott Canada Exploration, had intersected kimberlite in two drill holes during an exploration program at the joint-ventured Ice claims in the Northwest Territories. Tahera, the product of a recent merger between Lytton Minerals and New Indigo Resources, closed the week down 2 cents to 22 cents.

Inter-Rock Gold soared 13 cents to 20 cents as the company considered paying US$5.2 million for a specialty minerals business in the western U.S. Last year, Inter-Rock sold off its gold assets, including the Daisy mine in Nevada, leaving it with about US$904,000 in cash.