Venture board explorers keep up the pace

Strong base and precious metals continued to fuel investor appetite, further propelling the junior resource market over the January 17-23 trading session. The S&P-TSX Venture Composite Index closed out the week at 2,459.55, up 65.01 points or 2.7%, maintaining its rally to a more than 10-year high on an adjusted basis. Average daily trading volumes over the session reached a multi-year high of 79.5 million shares.

Market exuberance was exemplified by 147 companies surging to new 52-week highs over the week, versus a scanty 18 junior explorers that sank to new annual lows.

Volume-leader-for-the-week honours went to Typhoon Exploration, trading almost 12.1 million shares and gaining a nickel to close at 50. The northeastern Quebec explorer released results from 11 drill holes at its Fayolle gold project, situated along the Destor-Porcupine Fault. Intercepts of 14.9 grams gold per tonne over 12.1 metres were encountered in hole 28, including higher grade intervals of 1.5 metres of 89.5 grams gold. Fayolle hosts an historic indicated resource of about 200,000 tonnes grading 6.9 grams gold plus an additional inferred resource of 520,000 tonnes at 5.9 grams gold.

Bravo Venture Group traded 11.3 million shares over the session, shedding 26 after some profit-taking to close at $1.45 per share. The company recently resumed drilling on its South Lone Mountain project, located in the Battle Mountain-Eureka Trend, where re-sampled cuttings from 1989 oil exploration drilling returned gold values in prospective Roberts Mountain Formation rocks. Placer Dome is a joint-venture partner in the project and can earn up to a 70% interest.

Cypress Development continued its presence in the most-active ranks, with almost 10 million shares changing hands but dropping a penny-and-a-half to close at 31. The market remains keen on its Red Lake-area McKenzie Island gold project where it recently began drilling. The property is a joint venture with sister-company Skyharbour Resources, which traded 8.4 million shares to close at 13.5, off 2.5.

Beartooth Platinum gnarled its way onto the most-active list, trading 9.6 million shares and closing up a penny at 17 per share. The company announced an agreement to earn a 70% interest in a South African platinum project. The property covers a potential platinum reef just west of Lonmin’s Limpopo operations on the Merensky and UG2 reefs of the Bushveld Complex. The project gives the company significant PGMs exposure outside of its Stillwater, Mont., area holdings.

Continuing its appearance amongst most-actives, Yukon Zinc gave up a penny-and-a-half to close at 42.5 per share on volume of almost 7.9 million. The prospective base metal developer recently released a resource estimate on its Wolverine zinc-copper-lead deposit in the eastern Yukon. The company is also lining up financing for the project.

Shares of Kodiak Exploration surged 111% to close at 74 on volume of almost 3.3 million shares. A recent airborne electromagnetic geophysical survey indicated signatures of massive sulphide bodies covering a strike of 3.3 km on its Caribou Lake nickel-copper-PGMs project southeast of Yellowknife, N.W.T.