TSX Venture Exchange -January 5-11

The up-and-up trend continued during the Jan. 5-11 trading period, as the S&P TSX Venture Composite Index gained 64.6 points to close at 1,608.53. It was the board’s first trip above 1,600 since it fell precipitously through that level in September 2008, on its way to a low of 684 a few months later.

Bulls far outweighed bears over the trading period, as 153 Venture-listed companies reached new 52-week share price highs. Only 23 juniors fell to new lows. Daily trading volumes were very strong, averaging 156 million.

Avion Gold was the period’s volume leader, moving over 32 million shares to close up 6¢ at 73¢. The company boosted the measured and indicated resource at its Segala deposit in Mali to 11.4 million tonnes grading 3.71 grams gold per tonne. Segala is one zone at the producing Tabakoto mine, where it produced a record 8,100 oz. gold in December.

The bidding war for Canplats Resources came to an end, with Goldcorp emerging victorious. Goldcorp is set to pay $4.80 for each Canplats share, in the form of $4.60 cash and a share worth 20¢ in a new exploration company holding the rest of Canplats’ projects. On the news, Canplats’ share price settled 35¢ lower to close at $4.75.

Terrane Metals is set to start building the next major mine in British Columbia on its own, at least for now, as Goldcorp decided not to convert its 60% stake in Terrane into a participating interest in the Mt. Milligan project. Terrane now needs to find $915 million to build the mine and says it is considering all options, including taking on a partner.

Things are looking up for Fortuna Silver Mines in Mexico. Demonstrators blocked access to the company’s development-ready San Jose project in Mexico in April and the company has been working since then to get things back on track. Their efforts were rewarded with the final development permit in December and, this week, a US$20-million credit facility. Fortuna’s share price added 54¢ over the week to close at $2.88.

A 70-metre intercept grading 1.64 grams gold failed to impress investors in East Asia Minerals, who pushed the company’s share price down 44¢ over the week to $4.06. East Asia has delineated 1.2 km of strike at its Miwah gold project in Indonesia, where the tabular gold zone is shallow, stretches across 400 metres width, and includes highgrade breccia feeder zones.

Investors were more impressed with Mirasol Resources’ discovery of a new highgrade silver vein at the company’s namesake project in Argentina. Chip samples from the outcropping Julia vein, which his traceable for 2 km, returned grades as high as 2,660 grams silver per tonne. Mirasol reported strong drill results from its Joaquin project, a joint venture with Coeur d’Alene Mines.

TSX-V most active issues
		VOLUME		WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Avion Res	AVR	32494	0.79	0.67	0.73	+ 0.06
Canplats Res	CPQ	18552	5.12	4.74	4.75	-0.35
Spider Res	SPQ	16913	0.08	0.05	0.08	+ 0.02
Mountain Captl	MCI	14523	0.19	0.10	0.14	+ 0.04
Largo Res	LGO	13846	0.28	0.16	0.25	+ 0.08
North Am Gem	NAG	13576	0.17	0.11	0.14	+ 0.03
Terrane Metals	TRX	13217	1.41	0.96	1.19	-0.20
Canada Lithium	CLQ	10404	0.62	0.49	0.55	+ 0.06
Selwyn Res	SWN	10357	0.27	0.21	0.24	+ 0.02
Yale Res	YLL	9993	0.12	0.05	0.10	+ 0.05

TSX-V greatest percentage change
		VOLUME		WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Troymet Expl	TYE	9720	0.15	0.06	0.14	+180.0
Condor Res	CN	8844	0.48	0.17	0.44	+158.8
Gee-Ten Vent	GTV	33	0.02	0.01	0.02	+100.0
Yale Res	YLL	9993	0.12	0.05	0.10	+100.0
Goldrea Res	GOR	1268	0.17	0.09	0.16	+ 77.7
HappyCkMinls	HPY	2180	0.35	0.21	0.29	+ 70.5
Radius Gold	RDU	2106	0.39	0.20	0.34	+ 70.0
NorthernGldM	NGM	4584	0.36	0.19	0.34	+ 70.0
Channel Res	CHU	1436	0.10	0.06	0.10	+ 66.6
North Atlc Res	NAC	8326	0.16	0.08	0.15	+ 66.6
Aguila Am Res	AGL	20	0.06	0.06	0.06	-33.3
Terrax Minls	TXR	86	0.27	0.20	0.20	-33.3
Karmin Expl	KAR	26	0.25	0.17	0.17	-32.0
Augyva Mng	AUV	26	0.09	0.08	0.09	-25.0
Midasco Cap	MGC	30	0.04	0.03	0.03	-25.0
Riverstone Res	RVS	1351	0.26	0.20	0.20	-23.0
Swift Res	SWR	42	0.35	0.27	0.27	-22.8
Athabasca Mnls	ABM	87	0.23	0.21	0.21	-22.2
Lorraine Coppr	LLC	40	0.09	0.07	0.07	-22.2
Windarra Minls	WRA	24	0.14	0.14	0.14	-22.2

TSX-V greatest value change
WEEK
		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
Clifton Star	CFO	380272	5.29	+ 0.94
Amazon Mng	AMZ	1549575	2.65	+ 0.60
Fortuna Silver	FVI	4797555	2.88	+ 0.54
Mirasol Res	MRZ	1892695	2.08	+ 0.50
Antares Minls	ANM	241926	2.03	+ 0.48
Goldsource Min	GXS	5599 30	2.15	+ 0.35
Anooraq Res	ARQ	636713	1.33	+ 0.35
Bear Creek Mng	BCM	549762	4.28	+ 0.33
Lions Gate Mtl	LGM	80131	1.00	+ 0.29
Condor Res	CN	8843944	0.44	+ 0.27
East Asia Mnls	EAS	7410890	4.06	-0.44
Canadn Shield	EXP	181809	2.01	-0.42
Canplats Res	CPQ	18551814	4.75	-0.35
RareElemntRs	RES	377492	3.95	-0.29
Midland Expl	MD	38862	1.30	-0.20
Terrane Metals	TRX	13217471	1.19	-0.20
Noront Res	NOT	2274754	1.87	-0.18
Hudson Res	HUD	4318977	1.13	-0.18
Western Troy C	WRY	151712	0.54	-0.15
RomarcoMnrls	R	5399262	1.56	-0.14