Trading Summary (October 15, 2003)

Toronto’s mining stocks reversed course on Wednesday, with the gold dropping 1.29 points to 193.43 and the diversified miners shedding 2.39 points to hit 183.36. By day’s end, the S&P/TSX composite index was 33.79 points higher at another 52-week high of 7,783.21.

Ivanhoe Mines was the most active of the miners, with more than 8.5 million shares winding their way 26 lower to $11.23. On Tuesday, Ivanhoe announced more stellar results from its Turquoise Hill copper-gold project in Mongolia, where three new holes cut as much as 244 metres running 2.88% copper and 1.13 grams gold per tonne. All were collared in the northern extension of the Hugo (formerly Far North zone) deposit, and each pulled up gold-rich bornite mineralization in quartz-veining.

McWatters Mining was the next closest ending unchanged at 4.5 with about 3.8 million shares traded. TVI Pacific was quick on McWatters’ heels, up a penny at 10.

Tahera put in a nice percentage gain, adding 1.5, or 11.5%, to make 14.5 on around 2.8 million shares. Tahera recently anointed Peter Gillin as interim CEO replacing the recently resigned Joseph Gutnick.

Kinross Gold was the lone major gold producer to end in the black, up 3 pennies at $10.22. Barrick Gold finished 28 poorer at $24.60, while Placer Dome dropped 7 to $18.49.

The big newsmaker among the base metal miners was Noranda, which said on Wednesday that it will cut 220 jobs and slash production by about 23% at its Horne copper smelter in Quebec. The issue ended a quarter lower at $16.10. Inco lost 28 to $41.25; late in the day the nickel giant said slower-than-expected ramp up of production at its Ontario operations has cut into third-quarter earnings to the tune of US10-US15 per share. Nickel production for 2003 is pegged between 410-415 million lbs.

Canada’s junior exchange lost some ground over the day as investors took profits. Advancing stocks beat declining stocks 404 to 394 and the S&P-TSX Venture Exchange composite index slipped 2.61 points or 0.18% and closed at 1427.28 with 71.9 million shares traded.

Amerigo Resources finished the day down 4 to $1.23 on 4.1 million shares. The company posted net earnings after tax of US 537,313 during its second quarter. This is up from a loss of US$45,384 in the year-earlier quarter. In July the company acquired the Chilean MVC copper property. In July and August Amerigo produced and sold 4.72 million pounds of copper, for a cash cost of 58.7 per pound, and a total cost of 61.7 per pound.

Spider Resources lost 2.5 and closed at 14.5 with 3 million shares traded. The junior along with partner KWG Resources have discovered a third zone of massive sulphide mineralization (McFaulds #3) in the latest drill hole (McF 03-18). The hole was designed to test selected geophysical anomalies located 1 km SW of the original McFaulds #1 mineralized structure. Massive sulphide is observable over 42 metres at a vertical depth of 120.5 metres. Assays are pending. KWG closed down 3.5 to 27.5 with 952,750 shares traded.

Continuum Resources tacked on 11 and closed at 56 with 1.9 million shares traded. Earlier this month, Continuum inked a deal to acquire Mexico’s La Calentana gold deposit in a share swap deal valued at about $3.2 million. The deposit, which has been mined on and off since the 1940s, is located in the Mexican state of Guererro, 35 km from the city of Altamirano.

Sparton Resources jumped a nickel and closed at 80 with 1.68 million shares traded. The junior recently reported that kimberlite indicator minerals have been found in till samples taken from its 100% owned property located in the Otish mountains of northern Quebec.