STOCK MARKET — VSE stumbles in September but recovers ground in new month Humdrum week as gold, diamond explorers post less-than-spectacular results

From August to September, both the composite indicator and mining indicator of the Vancouver Stock Exchange dropped by 2%. Also, four exploration and development companies were newly listed, including Waymar Resources, Antarex Metals, Clear Creek Resources and Twin Star Minerals.

During the report period ended Oct. 7, the VSE composite index was up 5 points, or 0.6%, to close at 831.85. The mining index edged down 1.88 points, or 0.25%, to finish at 742.26.

The combined value of the Alberta Stock Exchange rose 3.5 points, or 1.3%, to 2,548.05.

Columbia Gold Mines reached as high as 66 cents before announcing that it intersected a 16-metre interval of massive sulphide mineralization in a 450-metre stepout hole south of hole 65, drilled last year, at its 80%-optioned Fyre Lake project in the Finlayson Lake region of southeastern Yukon. Assay results are pending. Winter weather has forced the company to suspend drilling until next spring. Columbia Gold closed at 43 cents, a gain of 6 cents.

A 6-hole drilling program by Toronto-listed SouthernEra Resources at the Yuri kimberlite exposure on the Back Lake project determined that there is no pipe in place. Further test-pitting up-ice of the Yuri, however, suggests that Munn Lake is a likely source. At Yuri, four of the six holes intersected nine kimberlite dykes ranging in width from 0.1 to 1.5 metres. Kalahari Resources, which holds a 19.38% interest in the project, closed down 19 cents to 57 cents.

Golden Trump Resources dropped 44 cents to 81 cents after reporting that two diamond drill holes at the Tres Hermanos property, in Mexico’s Chihuahua state, encountered no significant gold values. The holes were drilled 50 and 150 metres vertically beneath old mine workings.

Cross Lake Minerals climbed as high as $1.68 before falling back to $1.33, for a gain of 31 cents. Recent drilling at its fully owned Sheraton-Timmins base metal property, east of Timmins, Ont., intersected disseminated to semi-massive chalcopyrite, sphalerite and galena mineralization. That mineralization was identified visually. Ten holes over 3,092 metres have been drilled there since early September. Results for those samples are pending.

Alberta-listed Blackstone Resources jumped 78 cents, to $1.78. Blackstone and Alberta-listed partner Glenhaven Resources are awaiting drill-test results from drilling at the Taiga nickel project in the Yukon. Meanwhile, Blackstone announced a $300,000 exploration program on its Dromedary project, also in the Yukon. The company has identified a number of potential sedimentary exhalative-type targets for follow-up drilling. Blackstone added 50 cents to close at 68 cents.

Diamond explorer Winspear Resources fell 13 cents to 75 cents. A 2,200-metre summer drilling program in the Snap Lake area of the company’s 57.3%-owned Camsell Lake project in the Northwest Territories failed to locate the kimberlitic source of anomaly CL-186, where two previous holes cut l00-metre-long intersections of complex, diamond-bearing kimberlite breccia.

Toronto-listed Aber Resources holds the remaining interest in Camsell Lake.

Alberta-listed Sur American Gold slipped a nickel to close at $1.65. The company announced assays from the first hole at its Mina Rica gold project in Colombia. From surface to a depth of 60.9 metres, the hole encountered 42.9 metres of altered volcanic agglomerate (excluding 18 metres of unmineralized andesite) averaging 1.7 grams gold per tonne, including a high-grade interval averaging 8.24 grams over 7.5 metres.