STOCK MARKET — Resource index takes springtime leap on Vancouver Stock Exchange — Winspear Resources, Jersey Goldfields emerge as most active issues

The Vancouver Stock Exchange pulled out of its nose dive during the report period ended April 22. Although still sliding, the VSE posted its best week in more than a month. The composite index lost 8.3 points to close at 1035.14, whereas the resource index rose 7.98 points to finish at 1850.45.

On the other side of the mountains, at the Alberta Stock Exchange, the combined value of the Exchange lost 18.73 points to close the week at 2,511.68.

Diamond hunter Winspear Resources was once again the VSE’s most active issue, posting a 2 cents gain to close at $2.15. Winspear recently announced it had intersected 107 metres of complex kimberlite breccia in the Snap Lake area of the Camsell Lake joint venture in the Northwest Territories. Winspear owns 57.3% of that project, with Aber Resources holding the remainder.

Once the core is logged, the kimberlite intersection will be submitted for caustic fusion analyses and separation of indicator minerals.

Jersey Goldfields was the second most active issue on the exchange, gaining 12 cents to close at 27 cents, with nearly 3 million shares changing hands. Most of that volume was generated by a block of 1.6 million shares put on the market by the company’s former Ecuadorian partners. According to a Jersey spokesman, “When the brokers saw those shares, and knew it was out of the way, they moved in and started recommending us to their clients.”

Back in January, Jersey dropped its 53 properties in the South American nation. It is now looking for new prospects.

Jopec Resources announced the acquisition of La Fortuna, a 10-claim, 3,000-ha gold-copper property in Chile, as well as the closing of a $350,000 private placement. La Fortuna is 60 km southeast of Santiago and 40 km northeast of El Teniente, one of the world’s largest copper mines. The company says its new property is in the same formational unit as El Teniente. Jopec was up 14 cents to close the week at 47 cents.

Madison Enterprises jumped $2.10, or 59%, to close the week at $5.65, on news of a high-grade, 4.5-metre intersection grading 2,140.98 grams gold and 677 grams silver per tonne from the Mt. Kare property in Papua New Guinea. Mt. Kare is contiguous with the western side of the Porgera gold mine, operated by Placer Dome.

Based on drill results from its joint-ventured Colado epithermal gold-silver deposit in Nevada, Easton Minerals has decided to continue its year-old exploration agreement with Santa Fe Pacific Gold. Easton was up 17 cents, or 40%, to close at 60 cents.

First Quantum Minerals gained 30 cents to close at $4.30, with 2.1 million shares changing hands. The company has been invited by the Zambian government to consider the acquisition of the Luanshya copper mine and the Baluba copper-cobalt mine, as well as two other mining ventures.

Sutton Resources posted a gain of $2.85 to close at $25.85. The company announced last week a new resource calculation for its Bulyanhulu gold project in Tanzania. The resource now stands at 13.4 million tonnes of 13.01 grams gold per tonne, based on a cutoff grade of 5 grams.

Mexican explorer Francisco Gold closed up $2.50 to $21. Francisco, which recently announced a gold discovery at its wholly owned Sauzal property in Chihuahua state, has filed a brokered private placement of 1 million warrants at $29.50 each.

It was a rough week for United Compass Resources, which lost 23 cents, or 43%, to close at 31 cents. On April 15, Research Capital withdrew from a recently announced $1.65-million special warrant financing, citing “adverse market conditions.”

On April 17, Castle Rock Exploration reported that United Compass failed to pay its $480,000 portion of 1996 exploration and would not be contributing to the $1.4-million program scheduled for 1997. On April 21, Patricia Mines said the option and joint venture with United Compass for the Island gold project near Wawa, Ont., was no longer in effect.