Toronto’s gold stocks followed the yellow metal lower on Monday, dropping 3.79 points or more than 2% to end at 179.05. Gold itself shed US$1.50 to finish at US$318.80 per oz. in New York. The base metal miners went the other way, gaining 1.6 points to make 125.39. Overall, the S&P/TSX Composite Index edged 27.56 points higher to 6,484.98.
Placer Dome was Canada’s most traded mining issue, finishing half a buck lower at $15.38 with just more than 2.1 million shares traded. On Friday, Placer extended for the last time its offer for shares of Aussie gold miner AurionGold. The offer now expires on Nov. 21. The company has more than 92% of the company’s shares and will compulsorily acquire the balance. Silver producer Pan American Silver shared in the red ink, falling 45 to $9.19. On Monday, Pan Am posted a third-quarter net loss of US$17.4 million (or 40 a share) on revenue of US$11.2 million, compared with year-ago net earnings of US$701,000 (2 a share) on US$13.8 million. The third-quarter numbers suffered from declining silver production and a large write-down of its Quiruvilca mine in Peru. Among the gold juniors decent gains were seen by: Richmont Mines, plus 40 to $5.35; Rio Narcea Gold Mines, up 9 to $1.66; Northern Orion Explorations, up half a penny to 7; and Moydow Mines International, 3 pennies higher at 59. Inco lead a quiet bunch of modestly higher base metal miners with a 43 gain to $31.73 with about 850,000 shares traded. Alcan was next in line rising 45 to $46.91 on a volume of more than 792,000 shares. On Monday, Alcan said it expects to take an after-tax charge of 10 per share in the fourth quarter as it closes its Burntisland alumina plant in Britain. The plant’s operations will cease by the end of November as Alcan exits the specialty chemicals market in European. Most of the remaining base metal issues put in similar gains. Exceptions were: Falconbridge, off 9 to $15.20; Boliden, 15 lighter at $2.30; and LionOre Mining International, which lost a nickel to $4.20. Having recently acquired more than 90% of the shares in its Australian-listed subsidiary LionOre Australia (Nickel), LionOre intends to compulsorily acquire the remaining shares. Canada’s junior exchange started the trading week firmly in the red. The S&P-TSX Venture Exchange composite index lost 5.81 points or 0.61%, and closed at 947.83. Dumont Nickel topped the most actively traded chart, ending the day flat at 12 on 913,000 shares. The junior completed a management shake up and intents to advance its wholly owned Attawapiskat diamond property adjacent to De Beer’s Victor diamond property in the James Bay Lowlands, Ontario. News of an $8.5 million financing, sent shares of Canadian Royalties 10 lower to $2.60, on a volume of nearly 860,000. The offering comprises 2.2 million units priced at $2.50 each, plus up to 1 million flow through shares priced at $3. Shares in the junior have run up on news of the latest drill results from the Mesamax northwest grid area on the Expo-Ungava property in northern Quebec. Hole 18 returned 49.3 metres grading 3.32% nickel, 4% copper, 0.13% cobalt, 1.5 grams platinum, 5.17 grams palladium and 0.26 gram gold from 5.2 metres downhole. A second mineralized zone was encountered 76.7 metres downhole, yielding 1.85% nickel, 2.23% copper, 0.06% cobalt, 0.58 gram platinum, 1.2 grams palladium and 0.04 gram gold over 2.3 metres. Assay results are pending from 30 more holes drilled into the area. Andean American added 5 to close at $1.30 on 250,000 shares. The company is running a small gold operation at its Santa Rosa mine in Peru.
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