The May 11-17 period started off strong for the S&P/TSX Venture composite index, but two days of gains were easily erased by three days of losses that left the board down 57.91 points at 1,554.67. Daily trading volumes dropped off slightly after three strong weeks, averaging 123 million.
The mid-week downturn certainly hit the junior market hard — over the period 134 Venture-listed companies fell to new share price lows while just 46 reached new highs.
A friendly takeover offer from Eldorado Gold almost doubled Brazauro Resources’ share price in a day, lifting it to $1.29 from 69¢ on 22.9 million shares traded. The offer will see each Brazauro share exchanged for 0.0675 Eldorado shares plus a share in a new exploration company, valuing the junior at $1.33 per share.
Brazauro’s principal asset is the Tocantinzinho project in Tapajos, Brazil, which is home to 1.9-million oz. gold in a near-surface deposit still open at depth. A February scoping study gave the project a net present value of US$129 million, using a 5% discount rate, and predicted a US$239-million capex requirement.
The other volume-leader for the week was Afri-Can Marine Minerals but its share price moved in the opposite direction, falling to just 12.5¢ from 22¢ on 20.4 million shares. The company reported early results from a sampling program at its Block J project, a 994-sq.-km concession off the coast of Namibia where the ocean is between 70 and 170 metres deep. Afri-Can recovered 112 diamonds averaging 0.17 carat each from 139 samples.
Promising drill results could do little more for Avion Gold than protect it from the sinking market — on news of expansion drill results including 13.42 grams gold per tonne over 16 metres and 9.89 grams gold over 9.1 metres — Avion’s share price gained just 4¢ to close at 62¢. The company is exploring the Tabakoto mine and exploration project in Mali and plans to complete 60,000 metres of drilling in 2010.
Just after achieving commercial production at the past-producing San Francisco gold mine in Mexico, owner Timmins Gold hit gold outside the boundaries of the planned pit.
Expansion drills returned several solid intercepts, including 10.28 grams gold over 13.7 metres just 50 metres south of the pit and 1.11 grams gold over 21 metres located 500 metres southwest of the known zone. The news added 19¢ to the junior’s share price, bringing it to $1.39.
And East Asia Minerals managed two contrasting feats over the week -the junior explorer hit a new share price high of $8.73 and then immediately fell $1.73 to win itself a place on the biggest losers list. Investors must have been anticipating more high-grade results from East Asia’s Miwah gold discovery in Indonesia and were disappointed when the latest results included more moderate grades, such as 1.01 grams gold over 159 metres.
| TSX-V most active issues | ||||||
| VOLUME | WEEK | |||||
| (000s) | HIGH | LOW | CLOSE | CHANGE | ||
| Brazauro Res | BZO | 31522 | 1.33 | 0.63 | 1.26 | + 0.62 |
| Afri-Can Marin | AFA | 20373 | 0.22 | 0.12 | 0.12 | -0.10 |
| San Gold Res | SGR | 14758 | 5.00 | 4.25 | 4.48 | -0.06 |
| RomiosGoldRs | RG | 14434 | 0.14 | 0.09 | 0.11 | 0.00 |
| Avion Res | AVR | 14066 | 0.69 | 0.59 | 0.62 | + 0.04 |
| Seafield Res | SFF | 13079 | 0.22 | 0.17 | 0.19 | + 0.02 |
| Spider Res | SPQ | 12009 | 0.10 | 0.08 | 0.09 | + 0.01 |
| RomarcoMnrls | R | 9752 | 2.17 | 1.98 | 2.02 | + 0.01 |
| US Silver | USA | 9074 | 0.26 | 0.19 | 0.22 | + 0.05 |
| Canadn Arrow | CRO | 8801 | 0.08 | 0.05 | 0.05 | 0.00 |
| TSX-V greatest percentage change | ||||||
| VOLUME | WEEK | |||||
| (000s) | HIGH | LOW | CLOSE | CHANGE | ||
| Brazauro Res | BZO | 31522 | 1.33 | 0.63 | 1.26 | + 96.8 |
| Merit Mng | MEM | 49 | 1.65 | 0.94 | 1.46 | + 55.3 |
| Arcturus Res | AZN | 607 | 0.09 | 0.05 | 0.06 | + 50.0 |
| Bonaventure En | BVT | 4424 | 0.03 | 0.01 | 0.03 | + 50.0 |
| Pac Comox | PCM | 1722 | 0.04 | 0.03 | 0.03 | + 50.0 |
| Mazarin | MAZH | 44 | 0.04 | 0.03 | 0.03 | + 50.0 |
| Max Res | MXR | 19 | 0.25 | 0.17 | 0.25 | + 47.0 |
| Wolverine Mnls | WLV | 25 | 0.20 | 0.20 | 0.20 | + 42.8 |
| Dumont Nickel | DNI | 652 | 0.19 | 0.12 | 0.17 | + 41.6 |
| Mountain Lake | MOA | 1649 | 0.60 | 0.42 | 0.56 | + 40.0 |
| Afri-Can Marin | AFA | 20373 | 0.22 | 0.12 | 0.12 | -45.4 |
| SGX Res | SXR | 782 | 0.40 | 0.17 | 0.20 | -42.8 |
| Adroit Res | ADT | 887 | 0.08 | 0.05 | 0.05 | -37.5 |
| Westcan Uran | WCU | 233 | 0.14 | 0.10 | 0.10 | -37.5 |
| NQ Expl | NQE | 1553 | 0.10 | 0.09 | 0.09 | -35.7 |
| Canaf Group | CAF | 31 | 0.03 | 0.02 | 0.02 | -33.3 |
| Santa Fe Metls | SFM | 112 | 0.11 | 0.10 | 0.11 | -31.2 |
| Touchdown Cap | TDW | 75 | 0.09 | 0.07 | 0.07 | -30.0 |
| Newport Expl | NWX | 351 | 0.13 | 0.11 | 0.12 | -29.4 |
| Ruby Red Res | RRX | 1294 | 0.05 | 0.04 | 0.05 | -28.5 |
| TSX-V greatest value change | ||||
| WEEK | ||||
| VOLUME | CLOSE | CHANGE | ||
| Brazauro Res | BZO | 31521898 | 1.26 | + 0.62 |
| Merit Mng | MEM | 48913 | 1.46 | + 0.52 |
| Mansfld Mnrls | MDR | 689200 | 1.94 | + 0.34 |
| Sacre-Coeur Ml | SCM | 543797 | 0.80 | + 0.20 |
| Orko Silver | OK | 2182004 | 1.85 | + 0.20 |
| Timmins Gold | TMM | 3352786 | 1.39 | + 0.19 |
| Clifton Star | CFO | 2116229 | 5.08 | + 0.18 |
| Mountain Lake | MOA | 1649290 | 0.56 | + 0.16 |
| SilverCrestMn | SVL | 783291 | 1.09 | + 0.13 |
| Midland Expl | MD | 44796 | 1.42 | + 0.12 |
| Pac Booker Min | BKM | 31343 | 7.00 | -1.00 |
| East Asia Mnls | EAS | 3458173 | 7.00 | -0.70 |
| Quest Rare Mnl | QRM | 502548 | 2.75 | -0.33 |
| Hana Mng | HMG | 870035 | 1.60 | -0.30 |
| Anooraq Res | ARQ | 461561 | 1.25 | -0.23 |
| Kiska Metals | KSK | 915970 | 0.92 | -0.18 |
| Antares Minls | ANM | 579776 | 2.44 | -0.16 |
| Brett Res | BBR | 1121756 | 3.53 | -0.16 |
| Lucara Diam | LUC | 1680944 | 0.82 | -0.16 |
| Comet Inds | CMU | 18000 | 1.45 | -0.15 |
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