Vancouver Stock Exchange U.S. dollar’s loss is gold’s gain

The Vancouver market hasn’t been able to match the gains posted on New York and Toronto, but not many others have either. Brokerage month-end, about a week ago, has put downward pressure on prices, but this factor is only temporary.

Industrial stocks are playing a larger role in the market here; and with interest rates and gold responding positively to a declining U.S. dollar, the market outlook hasn’t been this good in years. Activity in the Casa Berardi area has yet to impact significantly on Vancouver, but it might soon.

Among the largest price-gainers at presstime was Hycroft Resources which was $1 stronger at $7.64. The company has a producing heap leach operation in Nevada and is bringing another property into production adjacent to it. Hycroft is one of the Granges group of companies. Berle Resources (named after comedian Milton Berle, one of Murray Pezim’s cronies) was very active but slumped 3 cents to 77 cents . The company is involved in “Operation Wawa” with Galveston Resources, also in the Pezim group.

Over our report period, Galveston shot up $4.25 to $16.75 and today it was even stronger at $17.13. The company recently announced a one-million-share offering at $20 each, which will be used “for general corporate purposes.” There are one million warrants attached at $22. Galveston has marketable securities of about $20 million which is obviously being used as leverage.

Skyline Explorations recovered somewhat, gaining $1.75 to $9.75. Former Cominco Chairman Norman Anderson will be playing a pivotal role in developing Skyline’s Reg property. He told The Northen Miner the company’s immediate objective is to block out about 300,000 tons of minable reserves. That would be sufficient to justify a 200-ton-per-day mining operation. As reserves become available, production would be expanded. Mr Anderson is not only a seasoned professional but a no-nonsense pragmatist who no doubt will put the project into perspective for everyone.

Cusac Industries climbed 75 cents to $2.75. Total Erickson has been producing gold from Cusac’s property near Cassiar, B.C., although some of that output is the subject of a dispute.

New listings for the week included: Pastel Food; Western Canadian Mining; Spiral Engineering; Global Alert Systems; Consolidated Player Resources; New Hombre Resources (formerly Times Square); Corniche Resources (formerly Torex Minerals); Western Premium Resource Corp. and Tracker Explorations. VSE SHORT POSITIONS

The VSE reports a short position of 4.2 million shares and warrants as of Jan 16, 1987. Some of the larger positions included: Armor Development, 134,900; Regal Petroleum, 118,000; Happy Resources, 105,500; Jolt Beverage, 84,500; and Goldsil, 79,600.