Trading Summary (December 03, 2002)

The Toronto Stock Exchange returned 24.73 points from Monday’s gain to settle at 6,640 on Tuesday. Just four subindices managed to stay out of the red. The golds were at the head of that class gaining 9.61 points or nearly 6% to finish at 172.6. The base metal miners couldn’t keep pace slipping 2.44 points to 127.73.

Merger buddies Echo Bay Mines and Kinross Gold were the most actively traded miners trading 5.1 and 4.7 million shares, respectively. Echo Bay grabbed 9 to hit $1.40, Kinross rose 14 to $2.77 as the yellow metal tacked on US$2.60 to end at US$320 per oz. in New York. The third member of the proposed three-way merger, TVX Gold ended 85 higher at $17.70.

The three recently pushed back the completion date for their merger until January. The delay is owing to a review by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of a preliminary proxy statement refiled in September.

Other gold miners to make the TSX’s top ten traded list were: Eldorado Gold, plus 6 to $1.55 on 3.25 million shares; Placer Dome, up 74 to $15.57; and Barrick Gold, $1.15 higher at $23.85.

Iamgold and Repadre Capital grabbed 9 and 11, respectively, after inking a formal arrangement agreement related to their previously announced merger. Under the proposed plan, Repadre shareholders would receive 1.6 Iamgold shares for each Repadre share. Iamgold will be the surviving company. Iamgold ended at $5.17, Repadre at $8.11.

Most of the major base metal miners ended in the red. Inco dropped 80 to $33.45, Falconbridge fell 51 to $15.25, Noranda shed 38 to $14.45; and Teck Cominco‘s B class lost 4 to $11.16.

On Tuesday, Noranda said it would gear down operations at its Brunswick lead-silver smelter to an eight-month seasonal schedule amid low treatment charges and a weak outlook for lead. The measure will begin in July and will see lead production fall to about 78,000 tonnes from 100,000 tonnes. Silver output will shrink to 5 million ounces from 12 million.

Drill results reported by Teck Cominco and Miranda Mining confirm that mineralization extends north of the El Limon gold prospect on the Morelos Norte project in Mexico’s Guerrero state. Teck has a 78.3% stake in the project.

Canada’s junior exchange managed to pull out a modest gain despite decliners swamping advancers by a 347-to-261 margin. The S&P-TSX Venture Exchange composite index added 0.22 of a point and closed at 960.19.

Emerald interest continued to attract investors to Expatriate Resources. Shares in the junior closed flat at 11 on a volume of 442,000. The junior has teamed up with a private group to explore for emeralds on its Finalyson base metal project in the Yukon.

Canadian Golden Dragon Resources added a penny to close at 7 on 397,000 shares. The junior has a rig turning on the Vanguard East copper-zinc massive sulphide zone near Thunder Bay, Ontario. The program is designed to test the plunge of the high grade core, plus to trace the primary feeder zone.

Making a nice percentage gain, Axmin added 8 to close at 29 on 382,650 shares. The junior expects to have a prefeasibility complete next year on its Bouroum gold deposit in Burkina Faso.

A lack on news drove Canadian Royalties down a 7. The company recently cut impressive nickel-copper-platinum-palladium values on at the Mesamax zone on the Expo Ungava property in northern Quebec. The junior ended the session at $2.08 on 193,700 shares.