TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE – OCT 7-11

The S&P-TSX Venture Composite Index followed every other stock market in the world over the Oct. 7-10 trading period, falling dramatically. Over the week shortened by Thanksgiving, the junior board lost 158.29 points or 14% to close at 975.81. The Venture board had not dropped below the 1,000-point line since fall 2002.

In what could be a record, 722 junior mining and exploration companies fell to new share price lows over the week. None attained new highs. Daily trading volumes were inconsistent, but averaged out to 69.7 million.

The volume leaders all closed the week down. Nevada Exploration moved 6.3 million shares to close 11 lower at 4. The junior last announced exploration-related news in July; its flurry of trading is most likely a good example of what liquidity can do to a company in tough financial markets.

And the markets certainly are tough when a company can announce high-grade uranium intercepts and still fall dramatically in the following week and a half. Hathor Exploration, which released high-grade results from the Roughrider zone in the first days of the month, fell all through the week to close down 32 or almost 15% at $1.85.

A short, high-grade gold intercept at the Rice Lake gold project in Manitoba failed to halt the slide for San Gold. The junior lost 12 over the week to close at 81. In mid-September, the company arranged a $20-million bought-deal financing to continue exploration and development at Rice Lake.

High-grade copper-gold trench results out of Haiti lifted Eurasian Minerals; the junior closed the week up 18 at 84. Eurasian is exploring northern Haiti under a joint venture with Newmont Ventures. The latest results came from the Treuil licence, where one trench returned 14 metres averaging 19.15% copper and 140 grams silver per tonne.

Sherwood Copper had another tough week, losing 76 or 30% to close at $1.79. Sherwood runs the Minto copper mine in the Yukon, where it has expansion plans, and recently signed a merger agreement with Capstone Mining, which will see the producer move to the main board.

In fact, many juniors finished the week worse for wear. Digger Resources lost half its share price over the week to close at 50. Azimut Exploration also saw its market cap slashed in two, closing the week at 50. Avino Silver & Gold Mines, too, lost almost half its share price, ending the week at 51.

Even Canadian mining veteran Callinan Mines, which holds a 6.6% net profits interest and a 25 per ton royalty on HudBay Minerals’ operating 777 mine in Flin Flon, Man., was not spared from share price decimation. Callinan lost 46 to close the week at 69.

Other companies announced good news to no avail. Tirex Resources announced a long-term financial partnership with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development that will provide the junior with $9 million to advance its copper-lead-zinc-silver-gold project in Albania, but its share price lost 8 over the week to close at 56.

TSX-V most active issues
		VOLUME	WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Bonaventure En	BVT	7716	0.07	0.02	0.03	0.00
Nevada Expl	NGE	6301	0.10	0.04	0.04	-0.11
Rocmec Mining	RMI	5827	0.06	0.03	0.04	-0.02
Commerce Res	CCE	4963	0.24	0.17	0.19	-0.03
Sparton Res	SRI	4226	0.06	0.03	0.04	-0.01
Century Mining	CMM	4010	0.03	0.01	0.02	-0.01
Hathor Expl	HAT	3978	2.32	1.70	1.85	-0.32
San Gold Res	SGR	3974	1.05	0.75	0.81	-0.12
TagishLkGold	TLG	3940	0.03	0.01	0.01	0.00
Xemplar Energy	XE	3876	0.17	0.12	0.13	-0.04

TSX-V greatest percentage change
		VOLUME	WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Finlay Minrls	FYL	20	0.05	0.03	0.05	+400.0
Mountain Captl	MCI	217	0.14	0.08	0.14	+180.0
Vault Minerals	VMI	622	0.29	0.10	0.29	+163.6
Superior Mng	SUI	151	0.21	0.10	0.21	+110.0
Cedar Mtn Expl	CED	66	0.20	0.10	0.20	+100.0
Big Bar Res	BBK	25	0.04	0.03	0.04	+100.0
Amador Gold	AGX	2357	0.11	0.06	0.11	+ 83.3
Global Hunter	BOB	308	0.11	0.04	0.11	+ 83.3
Orex Expl	OX	245	0.10	0.08	0.09	+ 80.0
Archangel Dia	AAD	90	0.50	0.21	0.50	+ 78.5
NorthArrowMn	NAR	12	0.05	0.03	0.03	-81.2
New Horizon Ur	NHU	1075	0.04	0.01	0.01	-80.0
Lomiko Res	LMR	11	0.27	0.09	0.09	-75.0
Luiri Gold	LGL	41	0.16	0.04	0.04	-75.0
Nevada Expl	NGE	6301	0.10	0.04	0.04	-73.3
Dundarave Res	DDX	43	0.60	0.29	0.30	-71.9
Intl Chalice R	IRI	28	0.05	0.03	0.03	-70.0
Colombian Mins	CMJ	20	0.12	0.12	0.12	-67.5
Diagem	DGE	153	0.06	0.03	0.03	-66.6
Lithic Res	LTH	329	0.09	0.03	0.03	-66.6

TSX-V greatest value change
WEEK
		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
Pac Booker Min	BKM	40400	6.00	+ 0.50
Macarthur Mnl	MMS	11 200	1.70	+ 0.30
Exeter Res	XRC	445530	2.07	+ 0.26
Archangel Dia	AAD	90415	0.50	+ 0.22
Eurasian Minls	EMX	264878	0.84	+ 0.18
Vault Minerals	VMI	622200	0.29	+ 0.18
Underworld Res	UW	132500	0.60	+ 0.15
Wildcat Silver	WS	11200	0.32	+ 0.12
Superior Mng	SUI	150500	0.21	+ 0.11
Karmin Expl	KAR	11000	0.40	+ 0.10
Dundarave Res	DDX	43377	0.30	-0.77
Sherwood Coppr	SWC	2160113	1.79	-0.76
SouthGobi Engy	SGQ	210854	8.75	-0.75
Chesapeake Gld	CKG	282628	3.70	-0.55
Digger Res	DIG	41300	0.50	-0.55
Azimut Expl	AZM	286110	0.50	-0.54
Clifton Star	CFO	138045	1.91	-0.53
Avino Silver	ASM	251123	0.51	-0.46
Callinan Mns	CAA	441305	0.69	-0.46
Maudore Minls	MAO	158770	1.26	-0.44