Toronto Stock Exchange Slow but steady advance as market inches

Wednesday close, August 27

Trading was slow and quiet on the TSE today with the composite 300 index inching up by 1.77 pts to 3,038.12. Metals and minerals were up 2 pts to 2048.50. Big news was made by the oil and gas index with a 42.71 pt advance, its biggest since the end of May, to 2721.05. The gold and silver index was off 1.11 pts to 4572.31 and the price of the yellow metal on the Montreal spot market was $380(US)-bid $381 (US)-ask.

Most active gold this week is Placer Development. After hitting a six year high last week of $30.13, it has drifted down somewhat to close in today’s trading at $28.38. Its Australian subsidiary, Placer Pacific, started trading last week on the Sydney Stock Exchange.

SherrGold got the week off to a fine start by celebrating the first pour of dore bullion at its MacLellan gold mine near Lynn Lake, Man. President Garry Hughes tells us that mine development will be essentially complete early this month. The price of shares moved up 75 cents over the week to $7.25. They were off 13 cents on the day to close at $7.

Exploration and development work is scheduled to start later this month at Consolidated Professor’s Duport property near Kenora, Ont., thanks to an infusion of funds from two separate financing agreements. One agreement sees the issuance of up to 2 million shares on a flow- through basis at $1.25 per share to Conwest Exploration, while the other involves a private placement by Vancouver-based Haywood Securities. Over the week shares of Cons Professor gained 16 cents to new- high at $1.50. Today the shares lost 3 cents to close at $1.37 on a volume of 23,000. Conwest, known for its strong balance sheet, saw its A shares dip 50 cents on the week to $8 with trading unchanged today.

It looks as if the Pardee Twp. properties of Great Lakes Nickel will see some action once again after being on stand-by for some ten years. Vancouver-listed Fleck Resources, known for its platinum group metals (pgm) bet near Marathon, Ont, has an option to earn an interest on the properties and, yes, they will be investigating for platinum group metals. Great Lakes Nickel new-highed this week at 61 cents after a gain of 8 cents . A penny was lost in today’s trading for a close of 55 cents .

A new-high was chalked up by Canamax Resources this week. It gained 63 cents to reach $6.63. Today, it slipped 13 cents to close at $6.38 on a volume of 14,000. This company reports increased reserves at its Kremzar gold project near Wawa, Ont.

Recent new-lister Cambior says its will retain its 32% stake in Sullivan Mines. Cambior was up 75 cents on the week and 25 cents today to new- high at $12.13 on a volume of 69,000. Sullivan traded unchanged at $4.80. Trading was halted on Friday on Nickel Rim Mines and resumed late Monday morning after news that a previously proposed private placement of up to 6 million special shares has been terminated. Over the week, shares dropped 21 cents to a low of 22 cents . A penny was lost today for a close of 21 cents on a volume of 99,000.

Pamour Inc. which recently bought Falconbridge Ltd.’s 19.2% stake in Giant Yellowknife Mines, is considering merging its gold mining operations in the Porcupine area of Ontario with Giant’s operation in the Northwest Territories. Pamour lost 50 cents today for a close of $11, while Giant Yellowknife traded unchanged at $20.50.

Falconbridge was up a quarter on the week to $18, while in today’s trading a quarter was lost for a close of $17.75 on a turnover of 66,000. Kerr Addison completed the acquisition of about 50% of the issued common shares of Corp. Falconbridge Copper today from Falconbridge and Kerr President Ian D. Bayer says first priority will be given to bringing the Winston Lake orebody into production. Kerr shares were $15-bid, $15.50-ask today on a volume of 48,000.