MINING MARKETS & INVESTMENT NEWS — WESTERN MARKETS — VSE loses more steam over holiday-shortened period — Winspear still volatile following Snap Lake results

The Vancouver Stock Exchange composite index slid 3.62 points, or 0.9%, to finish the holiday-shorted week ended Aug. 3 at 415.15. The mining index added 1.59 points, or 0.6%, to close at 275.33.

Meanwhile, the combined value of the Alberta Stock Exchange rose 23.95 points, or 0.9%, to close at 2,592.72.

Leicester Diamond Mines jumped 7 cents to close at 28 cents. The company rose $600,000 through a private placement of 2.5 million units at 24 cents each. A portion of the funds will be used to carry out work at the company’s Shetland Islands platinum-palladium properties.

Excellon Resources lost 14 cents and closed at 50 cents. Assay results from the Platosa property in Mexico could not grab the market’s excitement. Highlights from the drill campaign include a 13.12-ft. interval that assayed 25.8% zinc and 21.8% lead, plus 86.7 oz. silver per ton.

Winspear Resources tumbled 25 cents to close at $2.68. The company’s shares are still volatile following the results of its second bulk sample from the Snap Lake project in the Northwest Territories. A microdiamond grade analysis on the Snap Lake dyke is expected in August.

Polymet Mining closed at $1.51, up 11 cents. The company closed a private placement designed to raise proceeds of $2.4 million. The money will be used to advance predevelopment work on the NorthMet polymetallic project

in Minnesota. PolyMet is currently considering which metallurgical process would be most economical.

Archangel Diamond lost 8 cents to close at 72 cents. All legal agreements pertaining to the transfer of the Verkhotina diamond licence, near Arkhangel’sk Oblast in northwestern Russia, have been signed and ratified by all parties involved. Archangel will review its exploration data and design a work program aimed at recovering not less than 1,000 carats from the Grib kimberlite pipe. The program will establish the basis for begining a final feasibility study.

Strathmore Resources tacked on 6 cents to finish the week at 30 cents. The company is looking at developing a small uranium mine in South Dakota.

Maracote International Resources lost 6 cents and closed at 24 cents. The company is drilling hole 17 at its Halley gold-silver property in south-central Peru.

Golden Peaks Resources and joint-venture partner Primo Resources announced that the second phase of work on their Sierra de las Minas and Los Dos Buhos projects, in northwestern Argentina, is under way. The US$900,000 program will consist of prospecting, trenching and about 6,500 metres of diamond drilling. Golden Peaks closed at 38 cents, down 4 cents, while Primo remained steady at 10 cents.