TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE -June 14-18

The S&P/TSX Venture composite index almost managed to gain every day over the June 14-18 period, ending the week up 27.8 points at 1,488.18. Daily trading volumes returned to stronger levels, averaging 98.5 million.

Despite the overall gain, far more junior companies fell to new 52-week share price lows than those reaching new highs: only 23 Venture-listed companies attained new share price peaks while 177 fell to new lows.

The week’s two top traders started the week by signing a definitive merger agreement, which was soon trumped. KWG Resources and Spider Resources, which already share a 53% stake in the Big Daddy chromite deposit in northwest Ontario, inked a deal to exchange each Spider share for 1.21 KWG shares. But the third stakeholder in Big Daddy, Cliffs Natural Resources, then upped its bid for Spider to 16.5¢ per share, a superior offer to the KWG merger. KWG now has until June 24 to decide whether to match Cliff’s offer.

Terrane Metals had a high-volume week on news the company has hired contractors and started building its Mt. Milligan copper-gold project in north-central B.C. The $912-million mine could take 30 months to build. The company moved 15.2 million shares over the week to close up 9¢ at $1.04.

Golden Hope Mines and Atac Resources should both announce drill results soon and investors must be expecting good things, as both companies saw considerable share price gains. Golden Hope added 12¢ to reach 53¢; the company just completed a 5,000-metre drill program at its Bellechasse-Timmins property in Ontario, in which many holes intersected quartz veining in breccia zones up to 50 metres wide. Atac has five drills at its Rau project in the Keno Hill area of the Yukon, where the company plans to complete more than 100 holes. Atac gained 31¢ to close at $1.76, a new share price high.

A reality check from new CEO George Pirie sent Northern Star Mining’s share price down 10¢ to 8¢, a far cry from the 50¢ average it maintained a year ago. Pirie, who took over in April, said the previous goal of achieving production from two of the deposits at the company’s Malartic-Midway project in Quebec this year is not credible or realizable. He also called the company’s $43-million debt balance, due in 14 months, an “unsustainable obligation” and said Northern Star would restructure and reduce its near-term debt.

In happier news from Quebec, Maudore Minerals announced the best intercept to date from its Comtois gold project. A drill probing between the Bell and Osbourne deposits hit 239 grams gold per tonne over 1.5 metres. Maudore rose 60¢ to $4.20.

Recovery of a 53.5-carat diamond in the first week of production at the Mothae mine in Lesotho sent Lucara Diamond shares up 19¢ in a day to reach 98¢ apiece. The white Type IIA diamond is more than twice the size of any stone previously recovered at Mothae.

TSX-V most active issues
		VOLUME		WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
KWG Res	KWG	33658	0.13	0.10	0.12	0.00
Spider Res	SPQ	27724	0.17	0.16	0.17	+ 0.02
Terrane Metals	TRX	15172	1.15	0.94	1.04	+ 0.09
Northern Star	NSM	14621	0.18	0.08	0.08	-0.10
Medoro Res	MRS	13644	0.78	0.71	0.78	+ 0.05
Lucara Diam	LUC	10286	0.98	0.77	0.82	+ 0.02
Golden Hope	GNH	9711	0.56	0.36	0.53	+ 0.13
RomarcoMnrls	R	8879	2.07	1.79	1.96	+ 0.06
Logan Copper	LC	8798	0.02	0.01	0.01	-0.01
Fire River Gol	FAU	8326	0.65	0.40	0.60	+ 0.19

TSX-V greatest percentage change
		VOLUME		WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Max Res	MXR	74	0.22	0.16	0.19	+ 111.1
Totem Mnls	TTM	138	0.55	0.31	0.55	+ 77.4
Passport Metal	PPI	2536	0.08	0.05	0.07	+ 75.0
Golconda Res	GA	64	0.08	0.07	0.08	+ 60.0
Wolverine Mnls	WLV	101	0.22	0.15	0.22	+ 57.1
Sanatana Diam	STA	260	0.11	0.09	0.11	+ 57.1
Knick Expl	KNX	95	0.28	0.18	0.25	+ 56.2
Mazarin	MAZH	127	0.05	0.03	0.03	+ 50.0
Star Uranium	SUV	1456	0.04	0.03	0.03	+ 50.0
Fire River Gol	FAU	8326	0.65	0.40	0.60	+ 46.3
Northern Star	NSM	14621	0.18	0.08	0.08	-55.5
Logan Copper	LC	8798	0.02	0.01	0.01	-50.0
Menika Mining	MML	100	0.02	0.02	0.02	-33.3
Appleton Expl	AEX	3150	0.17	0.11	0.11	-31.2
Astorius Res	ASQ	35	0.09	0.09	0.09	-30.7
Teslin Rvr Res	TLR	255	0.06	0.05	0.05	-28.5
Micrex Devel	MIX	43	0.20	0.13	0.13	-27.7
First Pursuit	FPV	63	0.18	0.16	0.16	-27.2
Energizer Res	EGZ	303	0.30	0.24	0.24	-27.2
Silver Fields	SF	76	0.16	0.11	0.11	-26.6

TSX-V greatest value change
WEEK
		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
Bear Creek Mng	BCM	743407	4.72	+ 0.63
Maudore Minls	MAO	109707	4.20	+ 0.60
Rainy River Rs	RR	6111924	6.83	+ 0.58
Antares Minls	ANM	424963	2.50	+ 0.38
East Asia Mnls	EAS	3143591	6.57	+ 0.33
Hana Mng	HMG	1356640	1.74	+ 0.32
Atac Res	ATC	1566982	1.76	+ 0.31
Energold Drill	EGD	611542	2.25	+ 0.26
Brett Res	BBR	389196	4.03	+ 0.26
Clifton Star	CFO	2386101	4.51	+ 0.24
Alderon Res	ADV	579577	1.13	-0.31
Lithium One	LI	892286	1.05	-0.26
Merit Mng	MEM	38414	0.80	-0.25
Universal Powr	UNX	669599	1.83	-0.16
Loncor Res	LN	43800	0.87	-0.13
Lions Gate Mtl	LGM	11325	0.90	-0.12
St Elias Mns	SLI	392583	1.39	-0.11
Northern Star	NSM	14620707	0.08	-0.10
Orko Silver	OK	792998	1.53	-0.10
Minaurum Gold	MGG	62000	0.62	-0.10