Toronto Stock Exchange Market flexes its muscles and bursts

The composite 300 muscled past the 3,400 barrier with ease this week after tacking on a gain of 93.84 pts to close at 3,448.09. Metals and minerals provided some of the force as that index was up by 109.82 pts to 2,332.28. With the price of the yellow metal sliding down on commodity markets, the gold and silver index suffered a 98.78 pt dip this week to close at 6,221.37. The price of gold was holding its own today with a close on the Montreal spot market of $403(US)-bid $404(US) ask.

With over 2 million shares trading hands and a $2 gain for a close of $26.25, Noranda Inc. is this week’s most active trader. Its spin-off Hemlo Gold Mines formed with Golden Sceptre and Goliath Gold Mines to hold the Golden Giant mine is expected to be trading sometime next week. Noranda has put 12.2 million shares of Hemlo Gold up for sale at $19.25 each, thereby reducing its stake in the company to 50.1% from 62.4%.

Golden Sceptre was off $1.63 this week to close at $21, while Goliath lost $1.13 to close at $23.50. Both these companies will continue to trade on the TSE until Feb.11.

How high will Murray Pezim’s Galveston Resources go? The company has been on the fast track going up since early January. At that time it was trading around the $5 level. It closed the week at $18.50, up $2.26 over the week.

As mentioned in last week’s column, the wild rumour mill has it that Galveston is loaded with cash and eyeing to take over International Corona. Now comes the news that Galveston plans to acquire controlling interest in four resource firms, three of which are affiliated with Mr Pezim. The kicker is that the three companies collectively own 233,000 of Pezcorona warrants which are convertible into Corona shares.

The latest word from Galveston is that James Pattison is coming on board as a director. Mr Pattison, as recalled, was the guiding light of last year’s Expo.

Meanwhile, International Corona is waiting to hear the verdict of the court of appeal over the ownership of the Page-William Hemlo mine. Its shares dipped $1.75 to close at $34.50, while Lac Minerals lost $1.50 to $36.50.

The feasibility study on the Golden Pond project in the Casa Berardi area of Quebec has been completed. A review of the data by partners Inco Ltd. and Golden Knight Resources is under way. That should be completed in less than two months. At the end of that period a production decision could be made.

Golden Knight, with a 40% interest in the project soared up by $2.38 to new-high at $17.38 and close at $16.75.

Inco moved up 75 cents to $18.50. A positive production decision would be a shot of good news for Inco as its recently released financial results for the past fiscal year are splattered with red ink caused by the drastic drop in nickel prices.

Fort Knox Gold in which Inco has an equity interest, was hopping all week. It closed at 86 cents after a gain of 17 cents . The company has four drills in operation on two Ontario properties, but has no results to report to date.

With 480,000 oz of gold estimated to be produced this year, Echo Bay Mines has come a long way since the 118,000 oz poured back in 1983 from its then only mining operation, the Lupin in the NWT. The way the numbers add up now, Echo Bay will be surpassed only by the Dome Mines group of companies which poured 553,000 oz of the yellow metal in 1986.

Echo Bay was down $1.13 to close at $36.38 Dome Mines was off a quarter to $11.75, while Campbell Red Lake was down $1.38 to $30.38.

Nuinsco made some market waves this week up 27 cents to close at $2.50. Echo Bay is funding a $3.6 million underground exploration program at its Cameron Lake deposit near Kenora. Consolidated TVX released results from drilliing on its platinum bet in South America. However, no actual platinum or palladium values were reported. despite the fact that President Ian Telfer says assay results for seven of eight holes completed so far have been received. Cons TVX gained 12 cents to close at $9.

Falconbridge netted 38 cents to close at $18.25. The company reported a consolidated loss before extraordinary items of $15.5 million or 27 cents per share for the latest fiscal year versus consolidated earnings of $38.5 million or 95 cents per share in 1985.