STOCK MARKETS — VSE snoozes through the week

The Vancouver Stock Exchange composite index remained flat over the report period ended Jan. 21, up just 3.98 points at 1,195. The resource index closed down 20.22 points to 2,244.53.

Mar-West Resources reached a high of $2.04 before pulling back to $1.80, up 15 cents. The company released initial sampling results from road-cut and creek beds in an anomalous, 900-by-500-metre hot springs area at its 80%-held San Martin property in central Honduras. Five sample sites returned assays ranging from 0.77 gram gold per tonne over 45 metres to 1.62 grams over 105 metres. Mineralization is traced in a circular hill over a vertical extent of 170 metres. Mechanized pitting will be followed by a planned drill program in March. Curion Ventures, which holds the other 20% interest, closed up 5 cents at 42 cents.

Since releasing assay results for the first 87 metres of the hand-dug Seidu No. 3 trench, which averaged 15.9 grams gold, Hixon Gold Resources and 50% back-in partner Toronto-listed Golden Rule Resources have made sharp gains.

The two companies are jointly exploring the Stenpad property in the West African country of Ghana and have reported values from a total of five trenches dug on the Agykra and Seidu gold discoveries. Infill trenching is testing the 2,000 metres of strike length that separate the two discoveries.

A strong, irregular gold geochemical anomaly measuring 3.5 by 4 km has been identified in the area of the discoveries. Hixon climbed to $9.60, a gain of $3.20.

Adikann Goldfields rose 29 cents, finishing at $1.11. The company has interests in seven properties in Ghana and is drilling an initial 1,000-metre program on the Treposo gold zone at the Westbank concession, 20 km due east of Hixon’s Stenpad property. Adikann has completed one hole to date.

Claimstaker Resources was up 12 cents at 67 cents after entering into an agreement to acquire the Zenda mine property near Bakersfield, Calif., subject to a 25% net profits interest. The property hosts 920,000 tonnes grading 0.057 oz. gold and 0.4 oz. silver at an estimated stripping ratio of 1.33-to-1.

DiamondWorks has added to its African diamond properties in Angola and Sierra Leone by acquiring all the non-cash assets of Yunnan Mining. The company has acquired the rights to majority interests in five joint ventures holding gold and polymetallic exploration licences for properties in the Chinese province of Yunnan. DiamondWorks tacked on 48 cents to finish at $2.55.

By incurring exploration expenditures of US$3 million and paying US$1 million over four years, New York-listed Phelps Dodge can acquire a 70% interest from Francisco Gold in the Los Corralitos copper porphyry project in southwestern Chihuahua state, Mexico. In the surrounding Colorada claims, Phelps must spend an additional US$2 million over five years to earn a 70% interest.

Francisco closed up $2.05 at $15.30.

Australian junior Goldminco Mining jumped 63 cents to finish at 91 cents.

Five test pits on the North Posie gold anomaly at the Alice River project in Northern Queensland averaged a grade of 9.4 grams. The widely spaced shallow surface pits tested a 230-metre width of the 1.6-km-long anomaly.

Pacific Amber Resources was up 50 cents at $5 after the partial results from the first hole drilled in the southwestern end of the Sapit-Setul zone at the 70%-held Putussibau property in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, confirmed previous shallow drilling. Moreover, the hole also extended the mineralization to a vertical depth of at least 160 metres. The hole averaged 1.05 grams gold over the first 183 metres. The Sapit-Setul zone is a 2,500-metre-long gold anomaly, with widths of 100-700 metres, overlying a fault zone.