Juniors flatline despite stronger precious metals

The Christmas holiday season is sending a chill through precious metals markets, which traded in a fairly narrow range over the Dec. 15-21 period. The TSX Venture Exchange index closed at 1,746.68, up 33.39 points or nearly 2% from the beginning of the period.

Gold closed at US$442 per oz. on the New York spot market, up 1.5% from the US$435-per-oz. level at which it started the period. One theory is that the lingering threat of terrorist attacks is keeping gold strong. Not much seems to be affecting the dollar these days; it remains weak against the euro, and that means gold is holding its own. Many believe there is resistance around the US$450-per-oz. mark. Silver followed suit, closing 1.7% higher at US$6.81 per oz. During the previous week, silver dropped by more than 15%.

Platinum climbed $13 to US$876 per oz., while palladium continued its downward trend, by another $2, to close at US$182 per oz.

Among base metals, nickel gained a whopping 15% to reach US$6.73 per lb. while copper gained 4% to close at US1.46 per lb. on sustained demand.

The trading period saw 26 new 52-week highs for Venture Exchange-listed companies, whereas 71 companies reached new 52-week lows.

Volume leaders for the trading period were topped by Dianor Resources for the second week in a row. The company’s shares traded nearly 17.6 million but gave back 1.5 to close at 25.5, following the previous week’s eye-popping 74% gain. The company attracted market attention when it released news of G-10 garnets among abundant diamond indicator minerals in till sampling as well as up-ice circular magnetic features on its Cluster project in northeastern Ontario.

Murgor Resources placed second on the most-active list and closed up 3 to 20.5 on a volume of more than 6 million shares. The company is drilling on the Eagle River property, in the Barry-Urban belt of northwestern Quebec — a joint venture with Freewest Resources. Freewest featured ninth in the most actives, with 1.7 million shares changing hands; the stock price closed up 1.5 at 18.

Third on the most-active list was Sennen Resources, which traded in excess of 5 million shares and closed up 14.5 at 52. Earlier in December, the company’s Australian subsidiary reached a joint-venture agreement with an Australian coal company to finance and develop the Middlemount, Collingwood and Onaview coal deposits in Queensland.

Pine Valley Mining, a coal producer in northeastern British Columbia, was tenth on the most-active list, with 1.5 million shares trading hands. Pine Valley rose 30 to $5.58.

Calgary-based Tyler Resources traded more than 2.3 million shares, giving back a nickel to close at 70. The company announced highlights of the drill results from a skarn/breccia section on its Bahuerachi project.

Mosquito Consolidated was the top percentage gainer for the period, closing up 67.5% to $1.24 on 837,000 shares. The company recently completed a drill program on the Brett gold property, near Vernon, B.C. — a joint venture with Running Fox Resources.

Arizona Star added $1.39 and topped the value-gainers list to close at $6.99 after its larger affiliate, Bema Gold, launched a share swap bid worth $7.01 per Arizona Star share on the heels of a control battle for the company by a dissident shareholder.