High volume leads mostly to losses

The period April 12-18 saw the price of gold fall $3.25, to US$425.75 per oz., where it closed in the afternoon in London. All the mining-related indices fell as well. The gold index fell 9.4 points to close at 183.38; the diversified metals and mining index lost 26.33 points, or 8.5%, to close at 284.79 points; and the S&P TSX composite index ended at 9,330.99 points, down 12.73 points.

Kinross Gold led the way in volume among mining stocks, trading 16.2 million shares and losing 52 to end at $6.68. The company has begun issuing bi-weekly reports on the status of its financial statements to comply with its filing obligations under Canadian securities laws. Kinross plans to revise its 2003 and 2004 statements now that an independent evaluation of the company’s 2003 transactions has been completed.

Tahera Diamond traded 14.4 million shares and saw no change in value. The company has started building its Jericho diamond mine, which is set to begin production next year.

UEX is riding the wave of high uranium prices with high volume trading. The stock fell 30 to close at $1.54, with 13.5 million shares trading hands.

Placer Dome traded 12 million shares, falling 72 to close at $18.35. The company is busy arranging financing for its 51%-owned Cerro Casale project in Chile. In the meantime, Bema Gold wants to buy Arizona Star Resource to control the remaining 49% of the project.

Bema Gold fell 27 to close at $2.76 on a volume of 10.8 million shares. At presstime, Bema’s shares were rising on news that drilling at its Monument Bay joint-venture property had hit up to 31.7 grams gold per tonne over 4.8 metres.

Noranda was down $1.23, or 5%, to close at $23.21 on a volume of 11.8 million shares. The company declared a 12 dividend on its shares, which is payable May 16 to shareholders of record at the end of trading April 26.

Cambior rose 8 to close at $2.35 with 11 million shares changing hands. The company plans to buy Aurizon Mines’ 50% interest in the Sleeping Giant gold mine in Quebec for $5 million, increasing its ownership to 100%.

Southern Platinum closed up 6 at $2.55 on a volume of 8.4 million shares. Both Southern Platinum and South African platinum producer Lonmin have mailed out documents to the shareholders of Southern Platinum concerning Lonmin’s offer to buy all the issued and outstanding shares of Southern Platinum for $2.66 apiece. Southern Platinum’s directors support the deal.

Shore Gold fell 22%, or $1.40, to close at $3.88 on a volume of 2.9 million shares. There was no news to account for the fall.

Wheaton River Minerals had a similar decline, losing 21% to close at $3.34. Goldcorp bought all of Wheaton’s shares on a 4:1 basis, and Wheaton shares and warrants were de-listed from the TSX and the AMEX at the end of trading on April 15.

Jaguar Nickel fell 21%, or 7, to close at 26 on a volume of 2.4 million shares. The company’s vice-president and project director of the Sechol nickel-cobalt project in Guatemala has retired and the project’s manager of engineering has taken his place. A new resource estimate is due next month.