Junior market continues to slide

Vancouver — A battle between reluctant sellers and stingy buyers forced the bid-ask spread on individual stocks to widen to levels not seen in more than a year during the report period ended Oct. 1. In the end, the bargain hunters prevailed, sending the TSX Venture Exchange composite down 19.86 points, or 2.1%, to a new 52-week low at 949.46.

Pan Asia Mining was the most actively traded junior explorer, ending the week unchanged at 2 with more than 1.6 million shares changing hands. The company, which has been trying to advance a series of diamond projects in China, recently failed to maintain the requirements for tier 1 status on the exchange and has been reclassified as tier 2.

Bouncing off a 52-week low, Pallaum Minerals gained 2 to close at 10 on 1.1 million shares. The junior holds a 25% stake in the Adlatok River 2 nickel sulphide property on the South Voiseys Bay project in Labrador. Earlier this year, Toronto-listed Falconbridge tabled disappointing drill results from the project. The major can earn half of Pallaum’s interest by spending $14 million on the properties.

Starfield Resources lost 1 to finish at 35 on just over 1 million shares. Stock in the junior has fallen over the past few months on the back of drill results from its wholly owned Ferguson Lake project in Nunavut. The latest hole, returned up to 14.1 metres grading 1.5% copper and 0.9% nickel, plus 2.5 grams palladium and 0.5 gram platinum per tonne.

A big percentage loser, Andean American Mining dropped 14 to close at 65 with 1 million shares crossing the floor. At the request of the British Columbia Securities Commission, the junior is preparing a technical report on its Santa Rosa gold property in Peru, in compliance with National Instrument 43-101. The report is expected early this month. Snowden Mining Consultants is also working on a report of the first year of operations at the Santa Rosa mine, which should allow the company to complete a new resource estimation of the Open Pit zone.

Investors snapped up shares in Teuton Resources following news that a drill rig is turning on its Del Norte gold-silver project near Stewart, B.C. New surface samples collected from the project returned up to 10 metres grading 14.5 grams gold. The mineralization is associated with the volcanic-sedimentary contact and occurs in the same horizon that hosts most of the mineralization at the nearby Eskay Creek mine. Stock in the company rocketed to 45, before settling down at 28, up 11 on a volume of 949,000 shares.

Bell Coast Capital added 2 to close at 42 on 715,000 shares. The junior is in the midst of a $1.2-million financing, with funds earmarked for drilling of the Shadow Mountain copper-gold project in Mongolia. So far, results from 25 grab samples collected on the ground yielded an average grade of 0.63% copper and 0.14 grams gold.

Shares in Seabridge Gold fell to levels not seen in the past few months, dropping 77 during the week to close at $2.08 on a volume of 351,000. The Friedberg Mercantile Group acquired an additional 98,000 shares in the junior. On a fully diluted basis, the group and its affiliate, Pan Atlantic Bank & Trust, hold 17% of the explorer.