Resource stocks rise with the rest of market

The bulls charged ahead during the March 6-12 report period, pushing the Toronto Stock Exchange 300 index up 280.02 points to 7,866.14. Even the precious metals and base metals sub-groups were up over the week, albeit by a modest 0.7%.

Gold traded slightly lower in London metal markets, with the yellow metal falling 60 to a morning fix of US$293.75 per oz. on March 13. Silver was also down, but platinum and palladium each gained ground.

Despite their product’s devaluation, Barrick Gold climbed 21 to $28.36 and Placer Dome jumped 66 to $18. Kinross Gold, the smallest of the three senior producers, fell two pennies to $1.69.

Despite announcing it had lost US$227 million last year, TVX Gold edged ahead a penny to 96. The financial loss reflects writedowns, particularly at the Olympias mine in Greece, where the company recently had its development permits annulled by the country’s highest administrative court.

Going the opposite way was Northgate Exploration, which slipped two pennies to $1.35. The British Columbian gold miner lost US$9.9 million last year as low metal prices stripped away revenue. However, cash flow was a healthy US$13 million, and the company’s Kemess mine cranked out a record 277,000 oz. gold and 29,964 tonnes copper.

Crystallex International fell a penny to $2.75 on indirect news of the Venezuelan government’s confiscation of the Las Cristinas property which had been held by state enterprise Corporacion Venezolana de Guayana and joint ventured with a subsidiary of CDNX-listed Vannessa Ventures. Crystallex has long made the claim it holds rights to part of the property.

Except for nickel, which slipped a penny, base metal prices were unchanged in London metal markets. Nickel was fixed at US$2.88 per oz. on the morning of March 13; lead, at US22 per lb.; copper, at US72 per lb.; and zinc, at US37 per lb.

The major producers were a mixed bag: Inco jumped a $1.30 to $31; Falconbridge sank 6 to $17.39; Teck Cominco‘s B-series remained unchanged at $14.26; and Noranda slipped 4 to $17.30.

Among the mid-tier producers, First Quantum Minerals fell back 15 to $2.75. First Quantum has completed the first phase of an expansion program at its Bwana Mkubwa solvent extraction-electrowinning plant in Zambia. A new crushing, milling and pre-leach filtration line was installed, followed by construction of a second sulphuric acid plant. The plant currently processes tailings but will soon treat ore from the Lonshi deposit, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which hosts 5.1 million tonnes grading 5.75% copper.