STOCK MARKET — Western base metal issues take a beating — Winter blahs come early for composite, mining indices

The Vancouver Stock Exchange composite index stumbled again over the report period ended Nov. 18, dropping 57.24 points, or 7.6%, to close at 694.22. The mining index wasn’t any better off as it slid 66.6 points, or 10.3%, to close at 576.73. The combined value of the Alberta Stock Exchange fell 76.18 points, or 3%, to close at 2401.36.

Cross Lake Minerals dove $1.33 to $2.68. The company has been drilling the Cross Lake zone on its wholly owned Sheraton-Timmins property, 43 km east of Timmins, Ont. Hole 18, drilled to a depth of 479 metres, was sunk 50 metres northwest of hole No. 16, which intersected 34 metres of massive sulphides grading 6.7% zinc, 0.16% copper, 1.86% lead and 215.44 grams silver per tonne. Core from hole 18 has been split and sent for assay, but no mention has been made of a massive sulphide intersection.

Yuma Copper dropped 7cents to finish at $1.93. The company has arranged a US$45-million financing for the Sierra Gorda copper project in northern Chile. The funds will be used primarily to build a solvent

extraction-electrowinning copper cathode plant at Tuina. Also, improvements could be made to the copper leach operations at Sierra Miranda and Dona Ada, also in Chile.

Winspear Resources slipped 3cents to 72cents. Tests from caustic fusion analysis performed on 214 kg of kimberlite boulder material taken from the Snap Lake/Camsell Lake project revealed 325 microdiamonds and 169 macros.

The largest diamond reported was 3.47 mm in its longest dimension. The company reports that all kimberlite occurrences found in the area are diamond-bearing and have a similar source.

Arcturus Resources saw its issue climb to 52cents, up 13cents. The company holds 13,000 ha in the Faja de Plata mineral belt of Zacatecas state, Mexico, and intends to explore, at depth, for silver-gold stockwork deposits, base metal manto-style deposits, high-grade gold veins in fissures and gold-silver bearing sulphide veins.

Arizona Star could not pull out of its nose dive, falling 15cents to $1.87.

The Vancouver-based junior, together with Toronto-listed partner Bema Gold, optioned a 51% interest in its Aldebaran property, in northern Chile, to Toronto-listed big boy Placer Dome.

Drilling at the South Voisey’s Bay project continues. Teck has completed two holes on a property owned jointly by Cypress Minerals and Donner Resources.

The holes tested a large curvilinear gravity anomaly, reaching a depth of 701 metres.

The last 18 metres of hole 1 intersected

1 to 5 per cent disseminated sulphides. That hole stopped short of the basal contact as a result of drill limitations and will be deepened at a later date. Hole 2 encountered a thick sequence of Olivine gabbro. Assays for that hole are pending. Donner plummeted 93cents to $1.60, whereas Cypress slid 15cents to 44cents.

Mansfield Minerals dropped 14cents to $1.06. Highlights from nine reverse-circulation holes drilled on its Cerro Gordo property in northwestern Argentina include 57 metres grading 1.1 grams gold per tonne and 1.12% copper in hole 7, and 9 metres of 2.3 grams gold in hole 1.

Alberta-listed Spider Resources fell 4cents to 20cents. The company, together with Toronto-listed partner KWG Resources, drilled its first hole into the Contendas structure in the Paranaiba River area of central Brazil. The hole is interpreted to have intersected epiclastic crater facies sediments in a large lamproitic crater. A garimpeiro operation recovered two gem-quality diamonds 150 metres from the drill site. An additional nine holes will test other portions of the Contendas structure.