Trading Summary (August 28, 2002)

The Toronto Stock Exchange’s gold index managed to hang on to afternoon gains and weather a late-day dive coming in at 177.84, up 1.16 points from its previous close. The base metals issues experienced one of the largest percentage losses falling 2.59 points or 2.1% to 119.99 points. After opening lower, the S&P/TSX Composite Index remained in the red and ended off 62.89 points at 6,579.94 points.

Placer Dome was the most heavily traded gold issue and the TSX’s third most traded overall. The company’s shares climbed 28 to $15.24 on a volume of about 4.7 million shares. On Wednesday, Placer, and partner and take-over target AurionGold, announced a temporary suspension of mining at the Porgera open pit operation in Papua New Guinea. Vandals chopped down at least three power pylons cutting power to the operation. Placer figures it will take about three weeks to restore power.

Kinross Gold and Barrick Gold came next. Kinross fell a dime to settle at $2.83; Barrick dropped 17 to end at $24.15. Each had more than 2 million shares cross the floor.

Also seeing action was Echo Bay Mines, which dropped a nickel to $1.43 on nearly 1.8 million shares. The junior is still waiting to wrap up its three-way merger with Kinross and TVX Gold. For their part, TVX shares fell 48 to $18.20.

Wheaton River Minerals continued its recent ascension climbing 1 to $1.19 on about 1.6 million shares. Rio Narcea Gold Mines managed to tack on a penny to make $1.56 with about 189,000 shares traded. Rio boasted record production of 61,674 oz. of gold during the second quarter. Net earnings came in higher US$6.1 million (or 9 per share).

The base metal issues were lower nearly across the board. Alcan fell $1.25 to $43.60 with about 1.5 million shares changing hands to lead the slide. Inco, off $1.36 to $28.60 and Ivanhoe Mines, minus a dime to $2.60, were both off around 4%.

The TSX Venture Exchange composite index lost 4.35 points, or 0.43%, and closed at 1009.98 with 21.7 million shares traded.

ECU Silver Mining remained flat at 5 with 473,000 shares traded. The company recently inked a deal with Trustyard Capital for a private placement of $300,000. ECU Silver owns the Velardena silver mine in central Mexico which has a resource of 2.4 million tonnes grading 269 grams silver and 2.80 grams gold per tonne.

Pan Asia Mining closed at 5 up a penny with 464,000 shares traded. The company is exploring for diamonds on four parcels of land in the southern part of the Shandong province in China. The junior is planning a work program that will consist of further soil sampling, high-resolution magnetic and resistivity surveys, and, if warranted, pitting, trenching and drilling of the most favourable sites.

American Bonanza Gold Mines closed at 14, up 1 with 337,000 shares traded. Late last month the junior made an agreement with Mask Resources, whereby Mask may acquire up to 49% of American Bonanza’s wholly owned Gold Bar and Pamlico projects, both located in Nevada. In return, Mask would make a cash payment of $100,000, issue 800,000 Mask shares, and fund exploration to the tune of $3.6 million over a three-year period.