Editor's picks: top stories of week 13

More often than not, big mergers and takeovers are announced late on Sunday evening or early Monday morning — the better to prevent an information leak and any resulting suspicious trading before the official announcement.

The trading week ended March 30 followed this pattern, with Monday’s offer by Xstrata (XTA-L) of C$18.50 in cash for each share of LionOre Mining International (LIM-T, LOR-L), or C$4.6 billion in total.

LionOre shares immediately leaped above the bid, and gradually gained strength through week to close out Friday at C$19.22, or just shy of its all-time high reached earlier in the week.

This is such a sweet deal for LionOre shareholders — being able to cash out at a moment of peaking nickel prices — however it looks like Xstrata will need to add a little more cash to quickly complete this acquisition and move on to its next one. They have deep pocket and can afford it.

Any LionOre shareholders still contemplating holding out after any sweetner is offered shouldn’t get greedy, and keep in mind that shares were trading at just $5 as recently as a year ago.

A bullish run in the molybdenum subsector was a major theme of the week, with the spot price perking up to US$30.25 per lb. MoS₂ and moly-focused juniors seeing renewed investor attention.

Georgia Ventures (GVI-V) gained 300% following the announcement of its planned acquisition of the Creston moly project in Mexico.

Adanac Molybdenum (AUA-V) and subsector leader Blue Pearl Mining (BLE-T) both saw good rallies, with Adanac lining up $37.5 million in financings, boosting the resource at Ruby Creek and tabling a resource at the B&C project in Nevada.

Meanwhile on Bay Street, the Sprott Molybdenum Participation Fund is raising $75 million in an initial public offering, with monies to be invested in molybdenum stocks as well as actual molybdenum.

With the global diamond business broadly plateauing in the past year, it was a pleasure to hear of Aber Diamond‘s (ABZ-T, ABER-Q) record earnings of US$104 million for 2006 and continued success as it expands downstream into the high-end retail diamond business through its now wholly owned subsidiary Harry Winston.

In 2006, the company enjoyed record attributable production of 3.9 million carats from its 40% stake in the Diavik mine in the Northwest Territories, and completed its acquisition of the rest the “jeweller to the stars” Harry Winston that it didn’t already own.

Venezuela jumped back into the news in a big way on Wednesday with some uncharacteristic good news: Gold Reserve (GRZ-T, GRZ-X) had reported that the Venezuelan Ministry of Environment had approved the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) for the exploitation and processing of gold and copper mineralization at Gold Reserves Brisas project in the famed Kilometre 88 district of Venezuelas Bolivar State.

Gold Reserves shares responded accordingly, shooting up $2.53 on the day, or 49%, to $7.66 in Toronto.

Crystallex International (KRY-T, KRY-X) shares rose in tandem, closing up 29% on the day to $4.50 in Toronto.

Showing just how hot the markets are these days, on Thursday Crystallex announced a $36.2-million bought deal at C$4.25 per share — a sum that was quickly boosted to $53 million by Friday.

Editor’s picks: top stories of week 13

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