Toronto Stock Exchange Sept. 22-28

The S&P/TSX composite index was off slightly during the Sept. 22-28 reporting period, falling just over 100 points to 11,338.72 as investors continued to meet recent gains with caution.

Good news such as rising consumer confidence in Canada was tempered by a drop in consumer confidence south of the border, and gold’s recent run to over US$1,000 came off as the yellow metal fell to US$991 per oz.

That drop in price was reflected in the Global Gold index, which lost 13 points to 325 points. Agnico-Eagle Mines, Goldcorp and Franco-Nevada were the biggest decliners of the gold plays by dollar value.

The diversified miners fared better despite slumping base metal prices. The price for copper, aluminum, nickel, lead, zinc and tin all fell, if only slightly, but that failed to translate into bad news for the sector as the Capped Metals and Mining index gained 25 points to finish the period at 873.22.

West African gold explorer Volta Re-sources was the period’s biggest success story, gaining 106% to finish at 35¢. The company released a flurry of news over the last two weeks, the most significant being its Sept. 15 announcement of a new gold discovery at its Gaoua project in southwestern Burkina Faso.

It was also a good period for diamond explorer Peregrine Diamonds. The company’s shares shot up 83% to finish at $3.40 on two excellent news releases. First, Peregrine announced the discovery of seven additional kimberlites at its Chidliak project on Baffin Island and then reported that a 398.8-kg sample from its CH-6 kimberlite yielded 2,730 diamonds larger than the 0.075-mm sieve size, including 131 diamonds larger than the 0.6-mm sieve size.

BioteQ Environmental Technologies also had a solid period. The company, which extracts minerals from mine waste and purifies water at the same time, announced a new contract with Koza Gold for its Mastra gold mine in Turkey. It also said it would restart operations at the Mt. Gordon mine site in Australia. Operations were suspended in January after a storm damaged plant equipment.

Klondex Mines fell 29% to $1.29 after it axed a proposed merger with Paramount Gold and Silver. Klondex says its due-diligence review revealed that Paramount’s public disclosure record contained material misstatements and omissions regarding the inferred resource at its San Miguel gold-silver project in Mexico. Paramount denies the allegations.

First Uranium shares plummeted over the period by 21%. The company had to suspend operations at its Ezulwini uranium mine in South Africa after a worker was killed at the site. But after an investigation by the South African government, the mine was reopened after just one week. Uranium prices have not enjoyed the same rally that other minerals have in last eight months, and at presstime, the spot price for U₃O₈ was US$42 per lb.

TSX most active issues
		VOLUME	WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Barrick Gold	ABX	38742	40.56	38.89	39.54	+ 0.22
Peregrine Diam	PGD	27577	4.65	1.57	3.40	+ 1.55
Yamana Gold	YRI	27373	12.00	10.91	10.99	-0.58
HudBay Minls	HBM	27111	13.47	10.11	13.03	+ 3.66
WesternCCoal	WTN	27033	3.44	2.83	2.97	-0.29
Uranium One	UUU	25310	2.54	2.28	2.54	+ 0.05
Shore Gold	SGF	23090	1.31	1.00	1.10	-0.14
Denison Mines	DML	22473	2.32	1.97	2.14	+ 0.09
Mercator Mnls	ML	20881	3.18	2.76	2.80	-0.15
Teck B	TCKB	20342	31.06	28.16	29.47	+ 0.16

TSX greatest percentage change
		VOLUME	WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Volta Res	VTR	16805	0.47	0.17	0.35	+105.8
Peregrine Diam	PGD	27577	4.65	1.57	3.40	+ 83.7
BioteQ Env	BQE	2568	0.95	0.55	0.83	+ 56.6
Stornoway Diam	SWY	13176	0.28	0.12	0.23	+ 53.3
Yukon Gold	YK	2814	0.15	0.03	0.06	+ 50.0
HudBay Minls	HBM	27111	13.47	10.11	13.03	+ 39.0
Yorbeau Res A	YRBA	2493	0.34	0.19	0.25	+ 31.5
Sierra Minls	SIM	844	0.31	0.17	0.28	+ 27.2
Zincore Mtls	ZNC	3268	0.19	0.14	0.19	+ 26.6
Globex Mng	GMX	169	1.69	1.28	1.56	+ 25.8
Klondex Mns	KDX	1703	1.85	1.25	1.29	-29.1
Velocity Minls	VLC	21	0.25	0.19	0.19	-24.0
Atlanta Gold	ATG	165	0.12	0.10	0.10	-23.0
Colombia Goldf	GOL	588	0.24	0.18	0.18	-21.7
First Uranium	FIU	6744	3.70	2.71	2.91	-21.3
Anaconda Mng	ANX	273	0.31	0.25	0.25	-19.3
Moly Mines	MOL	3206	1.19	0.87	0.94	-16.8
Rockwell Diam	RDI	5861	0.05	0.05	0.05	-16.6
BRC DiamondCr	BCD	20	0.05	0.05	0.05	-16.6
Platmin	PPN	201	1.50	1.22	1.25	-16.1

TSX greatest value change
WEEK
		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
First Quantum	FM	3005322	68.86	+ 5.38
HudBay Minls	HBM	27110777	13.03	+ 3.66
Peregrine Diam	PGD	27577329	3.40	+ 1.55
Mag Silver	MAG	564903	6.33	+ 0.95
Aquiline Res	AQI	1167884	4.27	+ 0.78
Golden Mnls	AUM	26100	5.99	+ 0.75
Major Drilling	MDI	960013	22.00	+ 0.70
Ivanhoe Mines	IVN	6442548	13.64	+ 0.67
Colossus Minls	CSI	3445230	4.85	+ 0.50
Sprott Res	SCP	1668438	3.52	+ 0.45
Agnico-Eagle	AEM	4826247	69.97	-4.04
Silver Std Res	SSO	697874	21.84	-2.34
Goldcorp	G	12659905	41.81	-2.22
Franco-Nevada	FNV	2352358	27.71	-1.90
Agrium	AGU	3910002	54.11	-1.56
Kinross Gold	K	17456311	22.35	-1.52
Cameco Corp	CCO	4779454	30.17	-1.49
Newmont Mng	NMC	47499	46.32	-1.47
Seabridge Gold	SEA	162011	29.19	-1.46
Pan Am Silver	PAA	1120523	23.58	-1.30