TSX Venture Exchange – Jan. 27 -Feb. 2

The S&P-TSX Venture composite index managed four days of small gains before capping the Jan. 27-Feb. 2 trading period off with a loss. The board closed the week up just 5.66 points at 872.82. Daily trading volumes were again low, averaging out at 51.3 million.

Three Venture-listed companies climbed to new 52-week highs over the week, while 60 juniors fell to new lows.

The week’s most heavily traded stock was Gold Hawk Resources, which arranged a US$13-million loan in large part to repay a US$9.7-million loan that was just past due. Gold Hawk defaulted on its previous loan after ground movement forced a shutdown at its new Coricancha mine in Peru; the tailings facility is now being relocated. To get the new loan, Gold Hawk is issuing 20 million warrants and granting the lender a 2.5% net smelter return royalty. It gained 1¢ over the week to close at 4¢.

SouthGobi Energy Resources gained a healthy 99¢ to finish the week at $7.99 on news it closed a deal (first announced in December) to sell its metals division to Ivanhoe Mines.

SouthGobi will get US$3 million as well as access to a US$30-million credit facility for its metals division, which included base and precious metal exploration-stage properties in Mongolia and Indonesia. The sale will allow SouthGobi to focus on coal.

Golden drill results helped several juniors’ share prices. One of those was Chesapeake Gold, which gained 37¢ to close at $3.13 on drill results from its large Metates gold-silver deposit in Mexico. The best hole returned 142 metres grading 1.03 grams gold per tonne and 13.4 grams silver. Exeter Resource also benefited from solid drill results, adding 28¢ to its share price to end the trading period at $2.78. At Exeter’s Caspiche project in Chile, long porphyry holes returned intercepts such as 488 metres grading 1.3 grams gold and 0.44% copper.

Rainy River Resources also nabbed some investor interest with drill results, announcing short, high-grade gold intercepts from its Richardson property near Fort Frances, Ont. Rainy River’s share price gained 18¢ on the news to close at $1.70. And Romarco Minerals cut 60.6 metres of 6.9 grams gold at its Haile mine in South Carolina; investors did not react, perhaps because the company was set to release a Haile feasibility study, which it did on Feb. 3.

The other big gold story of the week was International Tower Hill Mines, which announced a new resource estimate for its Livengood deposit near Fairbanks, Alaska. Livengood now hosts 6.8 million oz. gold in indicated and inferred resources at a cutoff grade of 0.5 gram gold; at a 0.3-gram gold cutoff, the gold count climbs to 9.72 million oz. Tower Hill’s share price rose as much as 42¢ before closing the week up 23¢ at $2.75.

Investors, seemingly concerned they were expecting too much of Hathor Exploration’s winter drill program at its Roughrider uranium discovery in Saskatchewan, pushed the junior’s share price down 49¢ to $2.71.

TSX-V most active issues
		VOLUME	WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Gold Hawk Res	CGK	19823	0.04	0.01	0.04	+ 0.01
Dynamite Res	DNR	14651	0.15	0.09	0.11	+ 0.01
US Silver	USA	11516	0.14	0.11	0.12	+ 0.02
Cloudbreak Res	CDB	10487	0.08	0.05	0.06	+ 0.01
San Gold Res	SGR	5552	1.59	1.33	1.52	+ 0.10
KWG Res	KWG	5511	0.04	0.03	0.03	0.00
Diamondex Res	DSP	5167	0.04	0.02	0.03	-0.01
Brazalta Res	BRX	5159	0.13	0.09	0.11	+ 0.01
Canasia Indust	CAJ	4477	0.16	0.11	0.15	+ 0.03
Century Mining	CMM	4364	0.08	0.05	0.07	+ 0.02

TSX-V greatest percentage change
		VOLUME	WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Castle Res	CRI	46	0.10	0.06	0.10	+233.3
Mesa Uran	MSA	18	0.12	0.08	0.10	+233.3
Horseshoe Gld	HSX	198	0.03	0.02	0.03	+200.0
Skyline Gold	SK	173	0.05	0.03	0.05	+150.0
Tanqueray Res	TQY	152	0.05	0.03	0.05	+150.0
Roscan Minls	ROS	10	0.09	0.09	0.09	+125.0
Intl PBX Vent	PBX	45	0.08	0.05	0.08	+100.0
Buffalo Gold	BUF	1760	0.03	0.02	0.02	+100.0
AMI Res	AMU	219	0.04	0.02	0.04	+100.0
Condor Res	CN	69	0.09	0.06	0.06	+100.0
Garibaldi Res	GGI	221	0.06	0.02	0.05	-64.2
Northern Hemis	NHD	20	0.08	0.03	0.04	-63.6
Lund Gold	LGD	10	0.05	0.03	0.03	-62.5
Conway Res	CWY	35	0.03	0.01	0.03	-57.1
Whetstone Mnls	WMI	131	0.04	0.02	0.03	-57.1
Cedar Mtn Expl	CED	12	0.10	0.08	0.08	-55.5
Valencia Vent	VVI	128	0.08	0.03	0.04	-50.0
Adex Mining	ADE	554	0.08	0.05	0.06	-50.0
Diamond Frank	DOD	21	0.06	0.03	0.05	-50.0
Black Bull Res	BBS	184	0.03	0.01	0.01	-50.0

TSX-V greatest value change
WEEK
		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
SouthGobi Engy	SGQ	48950	7.99	+ 0.99
New Pac Metals	NUX	58612	1.22	+ 0.57
Chesapeake Gld	CKG	109475	3.13	+ 0.37
Exeter Res	XRC	326125	2.78	+ 0.28
Intl Tower Hil	ITH	693033	2.75	+ 0.23
Rainy River Rs	RR	656168	1.70	+ 0.18
Pac Booker Min	BKM	26610	6.75	+ 0.15
Xemplar Energy	XE	2166171	0.48	+ 0.15
Magellan Minls	MNM	224591	0.70	+ 0.15
Universal Powr	UNX	2208368	0.34	+ 0.14
Hathor Expl	HAT	2951696	2.71	-0.49
Noront Res	NOT	1571169	0.96	-0.15
Tirex Res	TXX	451879	0.67	-0.13
Fortuna Silver	FVI	1088155	0.85	-0.12
Troon Vent	TVN	45500	0.56	-0.10
Goldsource Min	GXS	145203	2.08	-0.10
San Marco Res	SMN	12000	0.15	-0.10
Terra Vent	TAS	917950	0.52	-0.10
Rare Elemnt Rs	RES	62190	0.55	-0.10
Cedar Mtn Expl	CED	12000	0.08	-0.10