Trading Summary (August 19, 2002)

Toronto gold stocks plummeted 6.65 points or nearly 4% to finish at 164.29 on Monday as the yellow metal slumped US$7.60 per oz. to US$306.20 per oz. in New York. On the flip side, the Metals & Mining sector picked up some of the slack gaining 3 points or 2.6% to make 120 points. With just two subindices in the red, the S&P/TSX Composite Index managed to tack on 86.38 points or 1.3% to reach 6,658.1 points.

Not surprisingly, the country’s gold majors suffered a sell-off. Placer Dome was the busiest shedding 63 or 4.5% to $13.47 on a trading volume of nearly 4 million shares. Kinross Gold dropped 24 or 8.25% to $2.67 on about 2.9 million shares. Barrick Gold lost 88 or 3.6% to settle at $23.67 with about 1.6 million shares on the move. The carnage was sector-wide.

On Monday, Reuters reported that U.S. anti-trust authorities approved NYSE-listed Newmont Mining’s 14% stake in a proposed three-way merger between Kinross, TVX Gold and Echo Bay Mines. Under the deal, Newmont will exchange its 45.3% interest in Echo Bay for a stake in the new Kinross.

Alcan led a quieter bunch of base metal miners with a $2.37-gain to $43.63. On Friday, Alcan announced a deal to double to 40% its stake in the 243,000-tonne, low-cost Aluminerie Alouette aluminum smelter in Sept- Iles, Quebec. The company grabbed Anglo-Dutch steel maker Corus Group’s 20% stake for about US$165 million.

Noranda advanced 31 to $16.90 on news that it has decided to cut bait at the long-stalled Montanore copper-silver project in northwestern Montana. The company cites slumping metal prices. The project had been suspended since November 1991.

Inco and Teck Cominco’s B shares put in plus4% gains rising $1.13 and 45, respectively. Inco ended the day at $27.68 and the B shares finished at $11 even.

The TSX Venture Exchange composite index lost 7.15 points, or 0.71%, and closed the day at 1004.83 with 21.5 million shares traded.

Morgain Minerals lost a nickel and closed at 30 on 2.0 million shares. The company recently re-activated the El Arca flotation mill in Zacatecas, Mexico. The El Arca mill is in the process of treating 2,200 tonnes of silver-bearing dump material that grades 175 grams silver and 0.45 grams gold per tonne.

Spider Resources lost a penny and closed at 4 with 728,000 shares changing hands. At the end of July the junior and its joint venture partner, KWG Resources, announced that they recovered 167 diamonds from 12 samples weighing 15 kg each from their diamond property in Wawa Ontario. One of these one sample yielded 59 diamonds including 22 macrodiamonds.

Donner Minerals lost 5 and closed the day at 23 with 618,600 shares traded. To date, four drill holes have been completed and a fifth is currently underway at the South Voisey’s Bay project in Labrador. Full assay results have been received from hole 137 and partial results from hole 138 The best grade in hole 137 is 0.84% nickel, 0.51% copper and 0.51% cobalt over 0.84 metres. The best grade in SVB-02-138 is 1.37% nickel, 0.64% copper and 0.16% cobalt over 0.77 metres. The South Voisey’s Bay project is held by Donner Minerals (76.69%); Cypress Development (11.36%); NDT Ventures (6.55%) and UC Resources (5.40%).

National Gold lost 4 and closed at 30 on 310,000 shares. The junior recently inked a deal with Super Group Holdings of Cranbrook B.C. whereby National Gold will acquire a 100% interest in six discrete gold and precious metals properties in the Purcell basin in the East Kootenay region of British Columbia.