Trading Summary (January 07, 2002)

The Paper & Forest subindex, off 0.2%, was the lone subindex to suffer a loss on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Monday. Leading the advancers was the Metals & Minerals subgroup, which tacked on 1.5%. The gold gained 1.4%. Overall, the TSE rose 37.06 points or about 0.5% to end at 7,870.25.

Franco-Nevada Mining fell 19 to $23.40 on nearly 3.6 million shares to rank as the nation’s most actively traded mining issue. Placer Dome was a distant second with about 2.7 million shares crossing the floor to gain 39 to $18.98. Semafo made a rare appearance in the top three mining issues gaining 4 pennies to $21.

Late last year, Semafo tabled an estimated indicated resources of about 3.5 million tonnes grading 2.38 grams gold per tonne, based on a cutoff grade of 0.5 grams gold at the newly discovered Wona zone on the Mana gold property in Burkina Faso, West Africa.

Unlike Franco, most of Canada’s gold majors enjoyed decent gains. Barrick Gold climbed 34 to $27.09; TVX Gold added 4 to hit 80. In the junior ranks, Viceroy Resources soared 3 or 27% to 14. On Monday, Viceroy announced that during the second half of 2001 it cleaned up its balance sheet and at the beginning of 2002, it had $5.9 million unrestricted cash in its coffers. The junior is says it is now looking for new opportunities in North and South America.

Other junior gold miners making nice percentage gains were: High River Gold, up 15 or 25% to 75 and Moydow Mines International, up a dime or 27% to 47. Moydow is active in west-central Ghana, where earlier this summer, it and equal partner Normandy Mining were granted a 30-year mining lease for the Ntotoroso gold project. In October, High River upped its stake in Buryatzoloto, the Russian company that operates the Zun-Holba and Irokinda mines in the Buryat region in eastern Russia by 10% to 51%. Under the deal, Jipangu received 5.1 million shares of High River and now owns 32.5% of High River.

Teck Cominco, with 2.2 million shares on the go, was the busiest of the base metal issues. The stock gained 48 to $14.18. Sherritt International fell a nickel to $4.07 on about half as many shares. Zinc miner Breakwater Resources gained 3 pennies or 10.3% to 32 on just less than 1 million shares.

On Monday, Norwegian industrial group Norsk Hydro agreed to buy the aluminium unit of German utility E.ON for US$2.79 billion to become the world’s third-largest producer of aluminum, behind only Alcoa and Alcan. Alcan shares were up 78 to $60.75.

Canada’s junior exchange started the trading week off by heading higher on moderate volume. The S&P-CDNX Composite Index gained 17.68 points, or 1.6% to close at 1089.62.

Pan Asia Mining topped the most actively traded chart among junior explorers ending the day up 2 at 10 on 566,400 shares. The company is eyeing a listing on the NASDAQ exchange with the backing of Valley Forge Securities. Pan Asia recently agreed to a private placement of up to 31.4 million units at a price of 10 per unit to raise $3.1 million.

War Eagle Mining ended the day at 16, unchanged on 244,500 shares. The company is aiming to advance the Mac tantalum property in the Northwest Territories this year.

Failing to get a boost on news of more high-grade gold values from its Phuoc Son property in central Vietnam, Olympus Pacific Minerals ended the day flat at 83 on 195,400 shares. Dubbed Khe Rin, initial grabs samples across an 80-metre section returned up to 391.3 grams gold and 7 grams silver per tonne. The average grade of the 11 samples came in at 71.2 grams gold and 1 gram silver.

JNR Resources added 1 to 6 on 238,000 shares. The junior’s joint venture partner, Kennecott Canada Exploration is moving ahead with uranium exploration on JNR’s Moore Lake project in the prolific Athabasca Basin of northern Saskatchewan.

Silver Standard Resources hit yet another new 52-week high, climbing 20 to $4.50 on 62,800 shares. The company is drilling the Manantial Espejo silver project in Argentina.