Vancouver Stock Exchange .Pezim continues to trade

The Vancouver Indices fared poorly over the week ended Jan. 15 as investors pulled their bids and hopped on the fence to wait out the next chapter in the Middle East crisis. The result was a 19.41-point drop in the Composite Index to 507.28, with the Resource Index following suit and shedding about 30 points to finish at 577.24.

Expectations of war seemed to help gold, the yellow metal breaking above the US$400 level to sit at US$403 per oz. on Jan. 16, today.

The court decision to allow an appeal of the trading ban imposed on Murray Pezim and his two colleagues was likely welcome news to the market.

Pezim received a stay to the ban, and can continue to trade until the appeal is heard. This may allow Pezim to trade through the summer since a trial date is not likely until the third or fourth quarter.

Pezim now heads Prime Equities which was spun off from Prime Resources Group on the basis of 1.5 shares for each five shares of Prime Resources held. Record date for the dividend is Jan. 22, 1991. Prime, which was still trading pre- dividend, finished the week off 15 cents at $4.

Despite a slow week, Consolidated Rhodes Resources traded an impressive 2.4 million shares easily making the issue the most active trader because of a recent financing. Rhodes broke below the $1 level to finish down 20 cents at 83 cents.

Toltec Resources, the company’s partner on the Gold Basin and Cyclopic properties in Arizona, fared worse. It posted a 34 cents loss to finish at 85 cents. Drilling on the Arizona properties is continuing.

Goldnev Resources bucked the general trend adding 19 cents on over 480,000 shares to finish the period at $1.05. Goldnev is about to start a $1.1-million exploration program on the Goldstream property near Revelstoke with partner Bethlehem Resources. The program will attempt to expand the deposit’s existing reserves of 1.86 million tonnes grading 4.81% copper and 3.06% zinc as well as test a number of targets. Bethlehem remained quiet at the 40 cents level.

Chase Resources continues to defy short sellers finishing the period up 40 cents at $4. The share price would indicate the company is having some success at dispelling rumors of problems with its agreement to acquire an option on a Philippine copper property.

Partners Eurus Resources and Thios Resources remained quiet over the period at the $1.30 and 60 cents levels respectively. The companies are gearing up for a $1.5-million exploration program on the Rock and Roll property in the Iskut River area of northern British Columbia. The Rock and Roll is viewed by many observers as one of the more prospective bets of the coming drilling season.

Another drilling program being watched closely is on the Golden West project, 50% owned by Pacific Sentinel Gold with the balance split between PIC Prospectors International and Almaden Resources. A 15,000-ft. program recently started on the Arizona property. Pacific Sentinel lost 15 cents over the period to finish at the $3.75 level while Almaden remained unchanged at $1.05 and PIC lost 25 cents to close at $1.10.