TSX Venture Exchange – November 24-30

After making aggressive gains for much of November, the S&P/TSX Venture Composite index ended the month off with a bit of breather. For the Nov. 24-30 trading period, the Venture board lost a sober 1.57 points to close the month out at 1,415.06 points. Market activity was slow in comparison with the past couple of months, with daily volume averaging 108.6 million shares. Volume on one day, Nov. 26, was as little as about 81 million shares. But as they might say, today’s low is yesterday’s high. Just six months ago, 81 million would have been described as a blistering pace.

Strong commodities continued to power the markets. Gold courted US$1,200 an oz. for a second week in a row; silver was around US$18 per oz.; copper remained over US$3 per lb.; and zinc and lead held above US$1 per lb. Those prices helped propel 100 companies to 52-week highs. Just a fifth of that number dipped to yearly lows.

One of the leaders of the gold pack during the five-day period was Mirasol Resources. Lifting Mirasol was news out of Patagonia. Mirasol’s joint-venture partner in Argentina on its Joaquin property in Santa Cruz province, Coeur d’Alene Mines, hit as much as 25.4 metres grading 1,164 grams silver per tonne at the La Negra target. Mirasol gained an admirable 54¢ to $1.23. Added good news for Mirasol, and many other property owners in Santa Cruz province, was the provincial government’s designation of a large swath of Santa Cruz as a zone of special interest for mining. Joaquin falls into that mining zone.

Another gold hound was International Tower Hill Mines, which continued to devour all-time share-price highs. News of a partial scoping study for oxide mineralization at its Livengood gold project in Alaska helped boost its shares 76¢ to $7.74. The scoping study envisions a whopper of a heap-leach operation with production of nearly half a million oz. gold a year for 13 years. A full scoping study with an outline of a flotation component for the project’s sulphides is expected in 2010. All told, Livengood’s indicated resource stands at 525 million tonnes grading 0.65 gram gold per tonne for about 11 million contained ounces gold.

Expectations for another bulk-tonnage gold mine pushed Chesapeake Gold up 96¢ to $6.76. Chesapeake is working on a scoping study for its flagship Metates gold project in Mexico, where it has pegged measured and indicated resources at 703 million tonnes grading 0.65 gram gold per tonne for nearly 15 million oz. gold.

Continuing an upward surge from what was a 25¢ share-price range for most of 2009, Freewest Resources Canada gained 12¢ to 76¢. Spurring interest in Freewest is a battle to take it over being fought by Noront Resources and Cliffs Natural Resources. At stake are Freewest’s base metal and chromite assets and the question now is which company has the resolve to win them.

TSX-V most active issues
		VOLUME	WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Freewest Res	FWR	18958	0.78	0.62	0.76	+ 0.12
Avion Res	AVR	9325	0.46	0.40	0.45	+ 0.03
RomarcoMnrls	R	8401	1.76	1.55	1.74	0.00
Network Expl	NET	8301	0.09	0.05	0.05	-0.02
Terrane Metals	TRX	8297	1.65	1.23	1.52	-0.12
Century Mining	CMM	7952	0.29	0.19	0.26	+ 0.04
TagishLkGold	TLG	6418	0.02	0.01	0.02	+ 0.01
Sidon Intl Res	SD	5963	0.05	0.04	0.04	0.00
San Gold Res	SGR	5039	3.87	3.60	3.78	-0.15
Noront Res	NOT	5039	2.34	1.90	2.29	+ 0.07

TSX-V greatest percentage change
		VOLUME	WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Kernow Res	KRD	1181	0.20	0.05	0.14	+100.0
Taranis Res	TRO	169	0.21	0.14	0.20	+100.0
Tagish Lk Gold	TLG	6418	0.02	0.01	0.02	+100.0
Mirasol Res	MRZ	3718	1.35	0.69	1.23	+ 78.2
Erin Ventures	EV	901	0.10	0.05	0.10	+ 66.6
Zinccorp Res	ZN	4015	0.14	0.06	0.11	+ 57.1
Columbus Gold	CGT	530	0.35	0.22	0.33	+ 50.0
C2C Gold	CCN	1365	0.03	0.02	0.03	+ 50.0
Canaf Group	CAF	125	0.06	0.05	0.06	+ 50.0
Jasper Mng	JSP	2268	0.11	0.08	0.10	+ 42.8
Stealth Mnls	SML	100	0.02	0.02	0.02	-50.0
Argonaut Expl	AGA	17	0.13	0.09	0.09	-43.7
Currie Rose Rs	CUI	1222	0.09	0.06	0.06	-40.0
Orestone Mng	ORS	86	0.16	0.13	0.13	-38.1
Golconda Res	GA	77	0.09	0.05	0.05	-37.5
Newmac Res	NER	91	0.06	0.05	0.05	-37.5
OroAndes Res	OAR	103	0.16	0.09	0.09	-35.7
Savant Expl	SVT	142	0.20	0.15	0.15	-34.7
Emerick Res	ERC	285	0.33	0.20	0.20	-33.3
Curlew Lke Res	CWQ	611	0.03	0.02	0.02	-33.3

TSX-V greatest value change
WEEK
		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
Chesapeake Gld	CKG	101893	6.78	+ 0.96
Intl Tower Hil	ITH	1657789	7.74	+ 0.76
Mirasol Res	MRZ	3718370	1.23	+ 0.54
East Asia Mnls	EAS	2341814	2.21	+ 0.26
Kootenay Gold	KTN	201680	1.11	+ 0.17
U3O8 Corp	UWE	575065	0.54	+ 0.16
Callinan Mns	CAA	557928	1.12	+ 0.16
Amazon Mng	AMZ	989408	1.43	+ 0.14
Aldrin Res	ALN	348500	0.65	+ 0.14
Merrex Gold	MXI	1685864	0.88	+ 0.14
Quest Uranium	QUC	848383	2.67	-0.34
Rare Elemnt Rs	RES	416379	3.63	-0.33
Energold Drill	EGD	420690	2.32	-0.32
Canplats Res	CPQ	2209946	3.35	-0.24
Fortuna Silver	FVI	1264509	2.05	-0.22
SouthGobi Engy	SGQ	67529	14.60	-0.18
Lions Gate Mtl	LGM	11100	0.90	-0.18
African Gold G	AGG	682865	0.65	-0.15
Galway Res	GWY	2359007	1.32	-0.15
San Gold Res	SGR	5038783	3.78	-0.15