Venture drops sharply Aug. 2-5

Junior explorers listed on the S&P TSX Venture Exchange fell sharply in the lead-up to the last-minute agreement by American politicians to raise the United States’ debt ceiling, with the index closing down 167.36 points or 9.1% over the Aug. 2-5 period to 1,811.49. The index now sits at a 10-month low, having fallen to a level last seen in October 2010. Trading remained slightly lighter than usual, with an average of 96 million shares traded daily.

Grand Portage Resources became the most actively traded company on the exchange during the trading period after releasing high-grade gold assays from its Herbert Glacier joint venture near Juneau, Alaska. The company owns a 65% interest in the gold project while Quaterra Resources holds the rest. The JV partners have released the first three holes of a 4,000-metre drill program at the property, currently focused on the Deep Trench vein. All three holes contained visible gold, with the best returning 8.8 metres grading 37.03 grams gold per tonne from 137 metres downhole, including 1.1 metres grading 225.26 grams gold. Mineralization at Deep Trench has now been established almost 1,000 metres along strike and up to 400 metres deep, and the area is still open to depth.

Nunavut-focused gold explorer Prosperity Goldfields saw the biggest percentage gain over the week after the company released an assay-less drilling update for its Kiyuk gold project near the Nunavut-Manitoba border. The company has completed approximately 1,700 metres of diamond drilling so far and is on track to complete its entire 3,500-metre program by the end of August, before caribou migrate to the area in the fall. The company is testing three previously established zones and two new targets. Core from two holes drilled at the Gold Point zone yielded a few specks of visible gold, prompting Prosperity to send the core for priority assay. The company says around 100 small gold grains about 0.1 millimetre in size are randomly scattered throughout 78 metres of core in one hole. The news was enough to send Prosperity’s stock up 29¢ or 62.2% to 73¢ on volume of 765,000 shares. The company has 40.3 million shares currently outstanding.

Also bucking the downtrend, Batero Gold rose 40¢ to close the week at $3.00 following the release of more drill results from the company’s Batero-Quinchia gold-coppery porphyry project in Risaralda, Colombia. The company has released five more holes from a 24,000-metre drill program started in May. The results show Batero is continuing to further delineate and infill the main La Cumbre porphyry zone, with the latest set of holes intersecting 332 metres grading 0.76 gram gold per tonne and 0.11% copper. A series of extensions to the zone both laterally and at depth should be included in the company’s maiden National Instrument 43-101-compliant resource estimate, expected to be released before year-end.