Trading Summary (December 19, 2002)

Toronto stocks dropped for the third straight day ending 23.96 points lower at 6,536.97 points on Thursday. The TSX’s Gold Index returned 4.74 points to finish at 194.04, despite a US$4.30-per-oz. gain by gold to US$346.10 per oz. (just off a six-year high) in New York. The diversified miners dropped 0.39 of a point to 127.10.

Barrick Gold dropped another $1.07 to $23.38. The company says a lawsuit launched by Blanchard & Co. alleging that the gold miner and banker J. P. Morgan Chase conspired to manipulate the gold market since 1987 is, "ludicrous and totally without merit.”

Kinross Gold was the busiest gold major, edging up a penny to $3.63 with nearly 10 million shares traded. Placer Dome rang in at $17.17, down 48 on about 2.9 million shares.

Among the mid-tiers, GoldCorp surrendered $1.08 after Wednesday’s gain to finish at $19.32 with more than 3.6 million shares on the go. The company recently tabled its 2002 exploration results from the Red Lake mine in northwestern Ontario. Drilling on the mine’s High Grade zone returned high-grade intersections 56 and 122 metres below the previous deepest HGZ intersection.

TVX Gold said on Thursday that the Greek Conseil d’Etat has decided that TVX is not required to submit a new environmental impact study to support the formally approved Technical Study (permit) allowing for the expansion of the Mavres Petres mine at Stratoniki. The Court’s decision still requires approval by all relevant Ministries before the Technical Study can be approved. TVX expects this to happen in January 2003. TVX’s issue grabbed 94 to hit $23.63.

Other gold issues making gains were: McWatters Mining, plus half a cent to 21; Eldorado Gold, up 9 to $1.95; Bema Gold, 4 higher at $2.10; and Geomaque Explorations, up half a penny to 8.5.

Alcan was the most traded base metal miner, rising 54 to $47 on 1.1 million shares. Fording dropped 12 to $33.18 on 918,654 shares. Falconbridge ended unchanged at $14.98. On Thursday, the nickel miner announced plans to buy back up to 750,000 of its shares at market prices. The shares would then be cancelled.

Gold explorers continued to propel Canada’s junior exchange higher. The S&P-TSX Venture Exchange composite index added 9.9 points, or 0.98% and closed at 1,017.96.

Atacama Minerals ended the session flat at 59 on over 1.1 million shares. The company runs the Aguas Blancas iodine mine in Chile. Budgeted production for the fourth quarter 2002 is 60 tonnes of iodine per month.

Catching the eye of investors, Goldminco closed at 11, unchanged with over 1 million shares crossing the floor. Placer Dome Asia Pacific, a subsidiary of Toronto listed Placer Dome and Goldminco have agreed to extend their property agreement until Dec 2003. The agreement grants the junior the right to negotiate to acquire interests in all of the Placer Dome Group’s gold projects in the South East Asia region (including Australia) which it intends to divest itself of, or withdraw from.

Investors continued to snap up shares in Radius Exploration following news of drill results from the Holly gold property in eastern Guatemala. Hole 4 cut 6 metres grading 43.56 grams gold and 1,617 grams silver. Shares in the company added 8 to close at 54 on a volume of 457,500.