Trading Summary (March 13, 2002)

The Toronto Stock Exchange had 1.94 points scraped off to finish at 7,864.2 on Wednesday. The golds led the five falling subindices with a 108.94-point or 1.9% fall to 5,694.75. The base metal issues slid 48.33 points to 4,685.19.

South American Gold and Copper was the most heavily traded miner with more than 3.5 million shares crossing the floor to gain 1.5 to 16.5. Placer Dome fell 55 to $17.45 on about 2.26 million shares. Barrick Gold finished just outside the top ten dropping 51 to $27.85 on 1.9 million shares.

Also seeing heavier-than-normal action was Wheaton River Minerals, which finished unchanged at 86 with nearly 1.2 million shares on the go. On Tuesday, Wheaton announced plans to spend $350,000 on drilling in 2002 to earn an interest in the AxelGold project in Central B.C. The project, part of a rare alkaline gold porphyry system is, controlled by Rubicon Minerals.

Inco was the most traded base metal miner with just more than 920,000 shares traded. On Monday, Reuters reported that Newfoundland’s mining minister said there are still three or four fundamental stumbling blocks in the way of the development of the Voisey’s Bay nickel deposit.

Teck Cominco fell 11 to $14.15 on about 322,000 shares. At a mining conference in Toronto on Wednesday, the world’s biggest zinc miner urged zinc producers to make further cutbacks to lower inventories, and possibly even create a deficit, which would put prices on a firmer footing when demand recovers.

Ivanhoe Mines dropped a dime to $3.35. The company continues to add land in Mongolia’s South Gobi region. The latest deal adds two prospects and brings the company’s holding in the region to nearly 50,000 sq. km. The company also announced that it has arranged a bought deal of up to $65 million in common shares at $3.25 apiece with a syndicate of underwriters lead by Griffiths McBurney & Partners and HSBC Securities and includes Haywood Securities.

The offering comes with a minimum purchase by the underwriters of $39 million. The deal is slated to close April 3, 2002. Proceeds will go toward exploration and development on existing properties.

Canada’s junior exchange drifted lower on light volume. The S&P-CDNX Composite Index lost 3.74 points, or 0.3% to close at 1153.81.

Spider Resources topped the most actively traded chart among junior explorers adding 1 to close at 10 on nearly 1.8 million shares. The junior recently announced the recovery of 8 macrodiamonds from a second mini-bulk sample collected from its Wawa property in northern Ontario.

American Bonanza Gold Mining continued to trade heavily on news that Toronto-listed Royal Gold inked a US$1.7 million deal to get a 3% net smelter royalty from the junior’s wholly owned Copperstone gold project in Arizona. Also included in the agreement is a 45% net profits royalty interest on the proceeds from a high-grade bulk sample program proposed for this year. American Bonanza ended the day at 13, up 1 on 1.62 million shares.

New Blue Ribbon Resources added 1 to close at 9 on 796,700 shares. The junior’s joint venture partners plan to drill the Hippogrif magnetic anomaly on the Birch Mountains diamond project in Alberta.