Toronto Stock Exchange Golds nudge market out of weeklong wallow

Wednesday close, Dec 10

Golds gave the market a welcome push upwards today after a tiresome week-long wallow. After dropping over 30 pts over the week, the widely followed composite 300 finally made a gain today, albeit a modest one at 5 pts, for a close of 3,042.98. The gold and silver index climbed 29.31 pts to 5,216.92. The price of the yellow metal was up as well with a close on the Montreal spot market of $390(US)-bid- $391(US)- ask. Metals and minerals made a gain of 1.08 pts to 1,979.27, while oils were up 10.36 pts to 2,820.00

The old maxim — when it rains it pours — never held more true than for American Barrick Resources, especially this past week as it snatched headlines in the national media with news of :

* a complex corporate restructuring which among other things gives President Peter Munk a 63% voting interest in United Siscoe Mines which in turn would own 30% of American Barrick;

* acquisition of a 4.9% stake in Consolidated Gold Fields, followed by rumors of perhaps even a larger stake in this major player on the South African mining scene;

* a suit by a Utah-based company challenging Barrick’s ownership of the Mercur gold mine in Utah;

* production go-ahead at Barrick’s Holt-McDermott mine north of Timmins.

Barely 10 months ago, American Barrick was trading quietly at about the $10 level. Since then it has doubled in value as it closed the week at $20.50. But in today’s trading it lost 63 cents to close at $19.77.

United Siscoe which is to be renamed Horsham Corp. and in which the Khashoggi family of Saudi Arabia will hold a 24% equity interest, new-highed this week at $3.75, after a gain of 80 cents . Today’s trading was unchanged at $3.70.

With nearly 800,000 shares trading hands, Black Hawk Mining keeps flying high since four investors lead by Paul R. Little have decided to re-activate and re- organize the company. This includes acquiring a private company called Platinova, which as its name suggests, has interests in platinum. It’s currently involved in a preliminary program with Vancouver- based Teck Corp. on a platinum bet in Greenland.

Black Hawk gained 9 cents over the week to new-high at 85 cents . It closed today at 71 cents . Meanwhile ,Teck saw its B shares dip 75 cents to $23 over the week, but today it tacked on a quarter for a close of $23.25.

In other platinum news, Madeleine Mines has extensive metallurgical testing under way relating to the treatment of the concentrate to be produced from its Lac des Iles deposit near Thunder Bay, Ont. Today Madeleine was off a nickel to $4.85.

And in the Sudbury area, United Reef Petroleum is reporting platinum group metals values from samples taken from mine dumps and pits on the past-producing nickel- copper Nickel Offsets property. Over the week, United Reef was off a penny to 98 cents but today it gained 2 cents to close at $1.

Consolidated TVX with a platinum bet way down in Brazil was up $1.35 on the week to $6.25 with trading unchanged today.

With the fate of the Hemlo Page- Williams mine now resting in the hands of five judges, it’s understandable if investors are feeling a little skittish. Both Lac Minerals and courtroom opponent Interna tional Corona were down on the week. Lac lost 75 cents to slide to $26.63, while Corona slipped 50 cents to $28.75. Today Lac was up 50 cents to $27.13, while Corona gained 13 cents to $28.88

In other Hemlo news, we now know that the new public company formed by Noranda Inc. et al which will have as its asset the Golden Giant mine will be called Hemlo Gold Mines Inc. President John Ivany tells us that the company should be ready to go to market with an issue offering by February. With over one million shares traded, Noranda was the week’s most active mining stock. It was off by 50 cents to $20.50, while today it closed at an even $20.

Highland-Crow in which Teck holds a 24.9% interest, new-highed at $5.88 over the week. Highland has recalculated the reserves on its Pickle-Crow property at 6.5 million tons of 0.266 oz gold per ton with less than 1% of that amount falling within the proven category. In today’s trading Highland-Crow was off a quarter to $5.38.