Jericho stirs market

The Toronto Stock Exchange surrendered some of its early gains to end the April 5-11 report period 24.65 points better at 9,643.72. The gold index performed similarly, edging 0.69 of point higher to 192.76, as the yellow metal tacked on US$4.40 per oz. to finish at US$429 per oz. in the afternoon in London on April 11. The TSX’s diversified crowd retreated 0.98 of a point to 311.12, despite the base metals having ended higher across the board.

Tahera Diamond was the nation’s busiest stock, with more than 12.6 million shares changing hands. Construction of the company’s Jericho diamond mine in Nunavut is under way now that all equipment is on site. The stock finished three pennies cheaper at 48.

Junior miner Opawica Explorations more than doubled its share price to 15 on a volume of 6.3 million shares. The company recently announced a private placement of 25 million units at 6 apiece to raise $1.5 million. One unit includes one share accompanied by half a warrant; each full warrant is good for an additional share at 10 per share for one year. A company insider subscribed to 1 million of the units; the rest went to arm’s-length parties. Proceeds will be used to pay bills, review potential property acquisitions, and fund exploration.

Other percentage gainers were: Gulf International Minerals, up 42.8% to 10; Ontex Resources, 32% higher at 33; Mountain Province Diamonds, 23.5% better at 2.89; Intrepid Minerals, 18% stronger at 59; and Sulliden Exploration, up 16% at 94.

Shares in Mountain Province were recently listed on the American Stock Exchange. The company says De Beers expects to complete a prefeasibility study on the AK mining lease in the Northwest Territories in June. The leases are held 51% by De Beers, 44.1% by Mountain Province, and 4.9% by Vancouver-listed Camphor Ventures. De Beers can take up to a 60% interest in the property by funding it to commercial production.

Meanwhile, Sulliden expects to close its acquisition of a 50% stake in the Torrine gold project in Peru by the end of April. The price tag comes to US$300,000 in cash plus 3 million shares. Sulliden is also required to spend US$800,000 on exploration over two years. The property covers 9 sq. km of a northwest-trending alteration zone, with grab samples yielding anomalous gold, arsenic and mercury.

On the flip side, Queenstake Resources continued to fall despite having increased its first-quarter gold production by 10% from a year earlier to 53,587 oz. The company expects to produce 275,000 oz. in 2005. Shares slipped a penny to 26.

Also on the slide was Petaquilla Minerals, which shed 12, or 20%, to settle at 48. Richard Fifer recently stepped down as chairman pending an investigation into his conduct while serving as governor of Cocle province in Panama. The company has also retained Roscoe Postle Associates to do an audit of the resource estimate for the Molejon epithermal gold deposit in Panama. Roscoe Postle will also complete a technical report compliant with the reporting standards of National Instrument 43-101.