Toronto Stock Exchange August 28-31

Even though they suffered through their worst drop in three weeks on Aug. 28, Toronto stocks came out of the reporting period Aug. 28-31 with a gain of just over 1%. The TSX Composite Index gained 173.05 points, closing at 13,660.48 on the Friday before Labour Day.

Not quite half the Toronto mining stocks advanced — 163 — with 20 unchanged and the rest declining. The best performance came from the golds, as the TSX Gold Index rose 9.04 points, or 3.5% of value, to 269.25. Bullion prices pulled themselves up US$11.15 to US$672 per oz. during the period.

Base metal prices were mostly stronger, but general uncertainty about the economy of the United States kept any euphoria watered down. Still, the Metals and Mining Index was 1% higher, at 797.65 points. Teck Cominco B-series shares were up 11 at $45.00, Inmet Mining was up $2.14 at $85.29, and Lundin Mining rose 82 to $12.10. The nickel miners rose as nickel prices went up 9%: Sherritt International was up 60 to $15.95 and FNX Mining 10 to $28.80.

The uranium market is still coming back to earth, with recent spot price estimates — always a best-guess exercise in this industry — falling to US$90 from US$95 per lb. U3O8. That has weighed on uranium dealers and producers: Uranium Participation Corp. fell 63 to $10.10 and manager Denison Mines 54 to $9.15; Uranium One slid 47 to $11.48, and Paladin Resources was 43 lower at $5.25. Uranium explorers and developers were almost all down — Aurora Energy finished at $11.98, down 78, First Uranium at $8.05, down 45, and Laramide Resources at $5.98, down 53. Almost alone among uranium juniors, Continental Precious Metals rose 56 to $2.25 on news of a resource estimate from its Viken metal-shale development, where it has 622 million tonnes grading 0.017% U3O8, 0.03% nickel, 0.29% V2O5 and 0.03% molybdenum (or 0.04% MoO3).

Cameco, which was up 68 at $42.65, solved an extraction problem at the Kumtor gold mine — how to extract Cameco from Centerra Gold, to be precise. Under an agreement between Centerra, Cameco, and the government of Kyrgyzstan, the ongoing legislative shakedown of Kyrgyzstan’s foreign gold mine operators will cost Cameco $120 million in Centerra shares transferred to the Kyrgyz government’s gold mining agency, Kyrgyzaltyn, which will now hold 29% of Centerra while Cameco owns 41%.

In return, Centerra gets to keep the mine operating and receives an improved tax structure and “business certainty.” Centerra was up $2.05 at $8.87 in a much-relieved market.

The most actively traded of the gold miners was Yamana Gold, which was up 90 at $11.69. Takeover quarry Meridian Gold rose $1.75 to $29.15, while Northern Orion Resources was up 12 at $5.05 following a shareholder vote the previous week that approved its merger with Yamana.

Iamgold touched a 52-week low of $6.81 during the period, finishing at $7.03 for a loss of 37 on the week.

TSX most active issues

		VOLUME(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Breakwater Res	BWR	20683	2.81	2.53	2.77	+0.02
Eastern Platin	ELR	16341	2.29	2.03	2.29	+0.16
Yamana Gold	YRI	16114	11.85	10.55	11.69	+0.90
Equinox Minls	EQN	15108	3.55	3.25	3.52	+0.07
Goldcorp	G	12360	25.15	23.81	24.93	+0.75
Barrick Gold	ABX	11811	34.45	32.65	34.33	+0.45
Apollo Gold	APG	11431	0.46	0.415	0.45	+0.03
Uranium One	UUU	11423	11.93	10.77	11.48	-0.47
Kinross Gold	K	11166	12.96	11.84	12.92	+0.83
Paladin Res	PDN	10775	5.66	5.05	5.25	-0.43

TSX greatest percentage change

		VOLUME(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Golden Peaks	GL	61	2.30	1.57	2.30	+35.2
Sterlite Gold	SGD	67	0.37	0.28	0.335	+34.0
New Gold wt	NGD_T	214	0.185	0.06	0.16	+33.3
Contl Precious	CZQ	1438	2.45	1.51	2.25	+33.1
Centerra Gold	CG	1776	8.90	6.40	8.87	+30.0
South Am Gld&C	SAG	10198	0.045	0.035	0.045	+28.5
Euro Res	EUR	15	1.24	1.15	1.24	+24.0
Franc-Or Res	FOR	207	0.22	0.18	0.22	+22.2
New Gold	NGD	3831	6.39	4.80	5.97	+19.6
Atlanta Gold	ATG	27	0.90	0.66	0.89	+18.6
Ascendant C wt	ACX_T	101	0.055	0.03	0.03	-45.4
Southwstrn Res	SWG	3101	1.54	1.00	1.07	-37.0
Africo Res	ARL	332	1.38	0.98	0.98	-19.0
Augusta Res	AZC	870	3.05	2.48	2.48	-18.6
Lake Shore Gld	LSG	1774	1.75	1.41	1.43	-18.2
Energem Res	ENM	137	0.50	0.38	0.45	-16.6
Kinross Gld wt	K_T	1043	0.225	0.165	0.19	-15.5
Adanac Moly	AUA	2257	1.63	1.37	1.39	-14.7
Thundermin Res	THR	681	0.295	0.235	0.26	-13.3
Pure Diam Expl	PUG	353	0.15	0.13	0.13	-13.3

TSX greatest value change

		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
Potash Cp Sask	POT	2749688	93.58	+3.22
Agnico-Eagle	AEM	3002988	47.22	+2.97
Newmont Mng	NMC	106683	44.75	+2.22
Inmet Mining	IMN	1188898	85.29	+2.14
Centerra Gold	CG	1775950	8.87	+2.05
Meridian Gold	MNG	1802672	29.15	+1.75
Royal Gold	RGL	26280	29.47	+1.39
Agrium	AGU	2196848	48.25	+1.23
Alcan	AL	3582858	104.25	+1.00
Silvercorp Mtl	SVM	593203	18.90	+0.99
First Quantum	FM	2211078	80.00	-2.20
Katanga Mng	KAT	1611681	20.30	-2.20
Gammon Gold	GAM	3012613	8.31	-0.80
Aurora Energy	AXU	422851	11.98	-0.78
Fronteer Dev G	FRG	1206786	8.10	-0.71
Southwstrn Res	SWG	3100767	1.07	-0.63
Uranium Partic	U	1314847	10.10	-0.63
UEX Corp	UEX	3394 640	4.74	-0.62
Augusta Res	AZC	869849	2.48	-0.57
Denison Mines	DML	6084830	9.15	-0.54