TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE JULY 18 – 21

The S&P-TSX Venture Composite Index continued its slow but steady decline over the July 15-21 trading session, losing 90.67 points to close at 2,287.67. Trading volumes remained less than stellar, averaging out to 60.1 million trades daily.

Coal dominated trading on the last day of the session, or more specifically a lack of coal. Saskatchewan’s coal prodigy, Goldsource Mines, announced that its first two exploratory holes did not hit the same thick seams of hard, bright coal as had the two discovery holes and the market’s reality check came hard and fast. The junior had gained as much as 6,000% since late April but lost $6.75 or more than 50% on July 21 to close at $6.

Goldsource’s fall brought area players down with it. North American Gem, Saturn Minerals, Cloudbreak Resources, Bitterroot Resources and Sidon International Resources all applied for coal permits in recent months near Goldsource’s discovery and all lost ground on the junior’s disappointing news.

Bear Creek Mining had a solid week, releasing strong results from its Santa Ana silver- zinc project in southeast Peru, completing its buyout of Rio Tinto’s interest in its Corani silver-base metals project, also in Peru, and closing a $21.5-million financing. The glut of news boosted the junior’s share price 31 over the session to close at $4.31.

Geologix Explorations added 30 to its share price on no news, closing the session at $1.75. Similarly, Altai Resources gained 22 to close at $2.27 on no news.

Fancamp Explorations, busy with a 1,500- metre drill program at its wholly owned Mc- Fauld’s Lake property beside Noront Resources’ Eagle One discovery, gained 21 over the week to close at $1.90. Neighbour Noront did not have the same luck, closing the session down 32 at $3.04.

Results expanding the C1 zone to depth at its Roche Bay iron project, in Nunavut, did not give Advanced Explorations the lift it was looking for. Neither did the announcement of a $7.5-million financing; the junior slid 25 to $1.05.

MagIndustries had a busy week. Its wholly owned subsidiary, MagPotash, closed a $70-million private placement, $50 million of which will be used to fund construction of its Kouilou potash project in the Republic of the Congo. The remaining $20 million will be used mostly as working capital for MagForestry, MagEnergy, and MagMetals. MagIndustries wasted no time in announcing another financing for its potash venture — it is now looking to raise $80 million to finance the balance of the equity requirement for Kouilou.

And a 350-metre intercept grading better than 4 grams gold per tonne wasn’t enough to stop Northgate Minerals’ slow decline. After a preliminary economic assessment found its Young-Davidson gold project barely economic, the junior’s share price has been struggling. New, better-than-average results of out Young-Davidson did little to help, with Northgate closing the session down 8 at $2.64.

TSX-V most active issues
		VOLUME		WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
North Am Gem	NAG	9557	0.27	0.16	0.19	-0.09
Saturn Minls	SMI	5124	0.43	0.19	0.20	-0.18
Cloudbreak Res	CDB	4267	0.12	0.09	0.09	-0.04
Solitaire Mnls	SLT	3555	0.16	0.11	0.12	-0.04
Acero-MartinE	ASD	3262	0.15	0.12	0.14	+ 0.02
Bitterroot Res	BTT	2397	0.68	0.36	0.41	-0.23
TagishLkGold	TLG	2256	0.04	0.02	0.02	-0.01
Goldsource Min	GXS	2036	15.15	5.07	6.00	-8.45
Sidon Intl Res	SD	1818	0.14	0.09	0.09	-0.03
Largo Res	LGO	1678	0.88	0.82	0.85	-0.03

TSX-V greatest percentage change
		VOLUME		WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
SouthamptonVn	SV	211	0.24	0.16	0.24	+ 60.0
ICS Copper Sys	ICX	1155	0.44	0.25	0.39	+ 56.0
Highbank Res	HBK	328	0.19	0.10	0.17	+ 54.5
Adroit Res	ADT	36	0.23	0.17	0.23	+ 53.3
Silvermet	SYI	224	0.14	0.09	0.13	+ 44.4
Trigon Uran	TEL	350	0.38	0.25	0.38	+ 40.7
Cadan Res	CNF	486	0.19	0.14	0.18	+ 38.4
Candorado Oper	CDO	137	0.13	0.11	0.11	+ 37.5
Staccato Gold	CAT	760	0.14	0.10	0.11	+ 37.5
Solomon Res	SRB	18	0.16	0.14	0.16	+ 33.3
Goldsource Min	GXS	2036	15.15	5.07	6.00	-58.4
Wescan Goldfie	WGF	1560	0.79	0.35	0.37	-52.5
Westar Res	WER	1383	0.63	0.20	0.27	-51.7
Saturn Minls	SMI	5124	0.43	0.19	0.20	-47.3
Swift Res	SWR	618	0.51	0.23	0.28	-44.0
Intl Northair	INM	30	0.14	0.11	0.11	-38.8
Uranium Bay Rs	UBR	323	0.08	0.05	0.07	-36.3
Bitterroot Res	BTT	2397	0.68	0.36	0.41	-35.9
Tagish Lk Gold	TLG	2256	0.04	0.02	0.02	-33.3
Noble Metal Gr	NMG	467	0.34	0.20	0.22	-33.3

TSX-V greatest value change
WEEK
		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
Aldridge Minls	AGM	12700	3.06	+ 0.31
Bear Creek Mng	BCM	197239	4.31	+ 0.31
Andina Mnls	ADM	200575	3.52	+ 0.31
Geologix Ex	GIX	227800	1.75	+ 0.30
Energold Drill	EGD	291000	4.25	+ 0.25
Altai Res	ATI	109700	2.27	+ 0.22
Fancamp Expl	FNC	38310	1.90	+ 0.21
SouthGobi Engy	SGQ	60744	17.70	+ 0.20
Pan Oce Exp	POE	111500	8.50	+ 0.20
Pac Booker Min	BKM	10413	7.00	+ 0.19
Goldsource Min	GXS	2036265	6.00	-8.45
Wescan Goldfie	WGF	1560150	0.37	-0.41
Noront Res	NOT	408095	3.04	-0.32
Westar Res	WER	1383300	0.27	-0.29
OroAndes Res	OAR	12077	0.95	-0.28
Advanced Expl	AXI	197100	1.05	-0.25
Bitterroot Res	BTT	2396836	0.41	-0.23
Swift Res	SWR	617880	0.28	-0.22
Antares Minls	ANM	49000	3.38	-0.22
Chesapeake Gld	CKG	161090	7.05	-0.20