Mining index flat as CDNX remains mired

Vancouver — The Canadian Venture Exchange finished the report period ended April 3 down 80.5 points, or 2.7%, at 2,908.21. The mining index followed suit, losing 72.9 points to close at 6,001.8, off 1.2%.

Southern Rio Resources slipped a penny to finish the week at 18.

The junior announced it has negotiated a 2.7-million special warrant private placement priced at 17 each, resulting in proceeds of $467,000. The company will begin a 13-hole program of reverse-circulation drilling this month at its joint-ventured Santo Tomas copper-molybdenum property in northern Chile. Four targets are to be tested, three of which are within a 3-by-2-km area, while the other is in the southwest corner of the property. BHP can earn up to a 70% interest in the project. Southern Rio is the operator.

Maracote International Resources resumed trading after terminating a proposed reverse-takeover of a hi-tech startup. The issue closed at 4, down 26 from when it last traded, in the summer of 2000.

Brasilca Mining reached a high of 29 before falling back unchanged at 18. The junior says several mining companies have shown interest in its Tucuma iron-oxide copper-gold prospect in north-central Brazil. Brasilca has drill-tested two targets 2 km apart.

BHP Diamonds has begun exploratory drilling on the Moose diamond property in Manitoba. The program is designed to test up to 12 priority targets. New Blue Ribbon Resources can earn a 30% stake in the project by spending $820,000 before Nov. 1, and a further $1.2 million before Nov. 1, 2002. The junior was unchanged at 19.

A ground geophysics program is under way on the Aylmer Lake West diamond property, 95 km southeast of Lac de Gras, N.W.T. Shear Minerals can earn a 49% interest from Diamondex Resources by spending $200,000 and issuing 200,000 shares prior to March 2001. A 60-line-km survey will be conducted over the Nicholas Bay kimberlite and four new targets within 3 km of Nicholas Bay. Recent microdiamond analysis of the Nicholas Bay pipe yielded 1,174 micros and six macros from a 127.7-kg sample obtained from six holes drilled by a previous operator. Shear was up 10 at 35, while Diamondex slipped 7 to $1.68.

Rhonda added 13 to close at 48. De Beers is carrying out a spring program of geophysics and drilling on the Knife kimberlite discovery, 80 km south of Coronation Gulf, Nunavut. De Beers can earn a 70% interest from Rhonda by spending $10 million on exploration. Last fall, representative drill core samples weighing 397 kg yielded 208 micros and nine macros.

International Wayside Gold Mines was off 4 at 25 on news that the first of this year’s drill holes at the Bonanza Ledge zone, within the Cariboo gold project in British Columbia, encountered no significant gold values. The hole tested the downdip continuity of mineralization cut by holes 30 and 31. A fence of holes is currently being drilled between the Bonanza Ledge zone and the Canusa vein to test a new structural model.