STOCK MARKETS — Voisey Bay triggers record trading on VSE

Labrador’s Voisey Bay nickel, copper and cobalt discovery is responsible for the record trading volumes on the Vancouver Stock Exchange for the month of June.

Trading volume exceeded 617 million shares for the month, or about 28 million shares per day, for a 53% gain over trading volume in the same period last year.

Value totaled $676 million, down slightly from May but more than 56% higher than in June, 1994.

For the trading period ended July 4, 1995, the Vancouver Stock Exchange resource index added 5.54 points to finish at 1,350.69 while the composite index closed up more than 20 points at 842.79.

Investor fascination with geophysical anomalies in the Voisey Bay region continued to propel share prices.

Joint-venture partners Tapestry Ventures and Portman Explorations both jumped on news that preliminary analysis of geophysical data from one of their Voisey Bay area properties indicates the presence of two “significant” anomalies with off-scale electromagnetic responses.

Tapestry hit a high of $2.60 before closing up 65 cents at $2.15, while Portman finished up 65 cents at $1.65.

The discovery of two sulphide gossans containing nickel, copper and cobalt values over several airborne electromagnetic conductors gave a lift to Alberta-listed Takla Star Resources and NDT Ventures.

NDT, which holds an option to earn a 51% interest in the property, added 50 cents to trade at the $4.20 level, while Takla jumped to the $5.50 level for a gain of $1.10 on the week.

Alberta-listed Cartaway Container is back trading, following a mid-May halt and a restructuring. The company plans to focus on resource projects and has an option to acquire property interests in the Voisey Bay and Harp Lake areas of Labrador. Cartaway closed up 85 cents at $1.80.

Although geophysical anomalies do not generally receive much attention outside of the Voisey Bay area, AGC Americas Gold posted a 55 cents gain to $3.05 after releasing preliminary results from an induced-polarization survey on its JD property in the Toodoggone region of northern British Columbia. The survey extended the Finn zone’s strike length to beyond 500 metres. Drilling last year on the silicified, gold-bearing zone returned values of up to 13.28 grams per tonne over 8.8 metres.

HRC Development got a 25 cents boost to $2.70 after announcing plans to option the Laguna Verde gold property to Cameco. Laguna Verde is jointly owned by HRC and Toronto-listed Eldorado. Cameco can earn a 51% interest by spending a minimum of US$8 million and providing all further funding to the completion of a bankable feasibility study

A financing deal with Teck helped Lysander Gold add 11 cents at 76 cents. The major will buy 2.1 million units at 60 cents each and retain a right of first refusal on future financings. The financing agreement also gives Teck certain back-in rights on Lysander’s Passagem mine in Brazil and Lorraine property in British Columbia.

Arequipa Resources reached an agreement with an underwriting group to place privately up to 4 million units at $1.30 each. The market reacted well to the news, adding 23 cents to finish at $1.55. Arequipa plans to use the proceeds to fund further work on its gold properties in Peru.

A $40-million financing agreement helped Northern Orion Explorations touch a new high of $5.25 before leaving the issue up 63 cents at $5.13. A group of underwriters have agreed to buy 10 million units at $4 each.

Alberta-listed Armada Gold shot up 55 cents to close at $1.60. The company reports that Davy International is completing a preliminary feasibility on its Baley gold project in Siberia and that the report should be ready sometime in August.

A 155-metre intersection of kimberlite in a previously untested target on the Fort a la Corne joint venture in Saskatchewan did little to help Kensington Resources, which slipped 2 cents to 95 cents. The drilling is part of a mini-bulk-sampling program.