Junior sector weakens with falling gold price

Junior mining stocks continued to show no signs of a turnaround as metal prices remained weak during the shortened trading period May 17-20. A strengthening U.S. economy and greenback are largely responsible for the weakened gold price, which slipped US$2.75 to US$417.60 on May 23.

The TSX Venture Exchange was up 5.72 points to close at 1603.06 on an average daily volume of slightly more than 35 million shares.

More than 10 times as many Venture Exchange-listed mining companies recorded 52-week lows (118) as achieved yearly highs (11).

Bucking the trend, Entre Gold led the volume leaders with more than 3.1 million shares changing hands. The company closed up 13 to $1.53, a 9% increase over the period. In fact, the company hit a new 52-week high of $1.64.

Entre is riding high on ongoing step-out drilling by partner Ivanhoe Mines. Ivanhoe has extended the high-grade copper mineralization 450 metres into the Copper Flats region of Entre’s Lookout Hill property in Mongolia.

Next on the most-active list was Tyler Resources, which tacked on 9 to close at $1.20 on a volume of 2.3 million shares. Tyler’s ongoing drilling at the Bahuerachi silver-copper-zinc property in Mexico continues to meet with success. On the Main zone, hole 23 returned 15.25 metres grading 1.64% copper, 1.01% zinc and 25.1 grams silver per tonne.

Aurora Platinum also reached a 52-week high of $2.24 before closing at $2.01, an increase 33 over the period with 1.5 million shares traded. On the heels of a takeover by Toronto-based FNX Mining, Aurora released a technical report on the Nickel Lake property in the Sudbury basin, a joint venture with Inco. The report says that significant intercepts of nickel-copper mineralization in a section of the Foy offset dyke appear to extend from Inco’s WD-150 deposit in the southeast onto the Nickel Lake property, and reaching as far as Foster Lake to the west.

Trading more than 1.3 million shares, diamond hunter Trs-Or Resources was up 7.5 and hit a 52-week high of 25.5, before finishing at 25. Partner, Arctic Star Diamond, and Trs-Or have intersected kimberlitic breccia at 93 metres below surface in the first hole of a drilling program on their Temagami North claims in Quebec. The breccia contains well-preserved purple chromium-pyrope garnets and emerald green chrome diopsides, among other kimberlite indicators. Plans call for at least four holes to test the magnetic anomaly spanning 20 hectares at surface.

International Kirkland Minerals added 2 to close at 14.5 on a volume of almost 1.3 million shares. The company posted encouraging results from its Xuefeng gold property in China’s Hunan province. International Kirkland completed the 1,000-metre Daping underground adit at 125 metres below surface in the centre of the property. It encountered several broad anomalous gold zones, including 14.6 metres grading 1.85 grams gold from zone I-12. Plans call for a $1.2-million, 9,150-metre drill program in two phases consisting of up to 30 holes at Chanziping and Daping, which are 7 km apart.

North American Tungsten traded more than 1.2 million shares over the report period and shot up 18 to $1.08. The company aims to restart mining at its mothballed Cantung tungsten mine in the Yukon, and owns the Mactung tungsten deposit in the Northwest Territories.