Vancouver Stock Exchange No end in sight to market slide

The Vancouver market renewed its slide over the period ended October 30, with the Composite Index shedding almost 17 points to finish at 524.46 while the Resource Index followed suit for a 28-point loss to 579.34. Gold remained fairly stable over the period at the US$370 level while silver appears to have found at least temporary support at the US$4 level.

Silver Butte Resources topped the most active list this week with over 1.6 million shares traded. The issue reached a high of 88 cents before closing at 72 cents, up 2 cents on the week. The company recently announced the de-mobilization of its 1990 exploration program on the SIB claims located to the south of the Eskay Creek property.

Results from eight holes of the 26-hole program are still to be released. American Fibre, the company’s joint venture partner on the project, lost 4 cents, closing at 70 cents.

An announcement that Corona Corp. had increased its stake in Prime Resources to 44% did not help Prime’s share price, the issue dropping over 50 cents to $4.55. Corona announced the purchase of 700,000 shares privately and 200,000 warrants on the open market giving it 18.8 million shares. Corona also has warrants and rights to warrants totalling over 1.38 million shares plus the right of first refusal over 858,500 shares.

With the share capital of Prime pushing 50 million shares on a fully diluted basis, Corona has yet to lock up control of the company.

Cal Graphite fared poorly, sliding 7/8 to $4.25. The company has a graphite mine north of Huntsville, Ont.

Crown Resources added $1 1/4. The company is developing its Crown Jewel property in northeastern Washington with Battle Mountain Gold.

Adrian Resources continued to slide, losing 27 cents to close at $1.53. The company has been experiencing very poor core recovery on its SKI project, north of the Eskay Creek property.

Santa Marina Gold was active this week, trading 790,000 shares to close up 1 cents at 40 cents. Noranda, the company’s joint venture partner, is doing a preliminary exploration program on a number of polymetallic prospects situated about 50 km north of the Eskay Creek area.

A drilling program on the SIB claim gap on the Lakewater property in the Eskay Creek area seems to be spurring some activity in joint venture partners Akiko-Lori Gold, Tymar Resources, and Varitech Resources. Akiko managed a 45 cents gain to $4.10, Tymar rose a more modest 6 cents to finish at $1.01, and Varitech shed a nickel to close at 80 cents.

Most of the drilling intersect relatively low grade gold-silver- lead-zinc although one hole cut a 9.8-ft. width of 1.20-oz.-per-ton gold. The companies plan to proceed with a 2-phase $1-million drill program on the property immediately.

Consolidated Rhodes lost some of the gains made last week, falling back 8 cents to settle at $1.34.

Toltec Resources, the company’s partner on two Arizona properties, added 14 cents to close at $1.19.

Sutton Resources gained 50 cents, closing at $3.40. The company is about to start a work program on its Tanzanian nickel property designed to firm up reserves which now stand at over 40 million tons grading 1.05% nickel, 0.11% cobalt, and 0.21% copper.