Trading Summary (April 26, 2001)

The gold issues climbed 163.88 points, or 3.6%, to lead the Toronto Stock Exchange to a 15.03-point increase on Thursday. The base metal issues tacked on 100.02 points, or 2.2%. The Oil & Gas stocks rose 1.8% and the Utility issues gained 1%.

Strong earnings powered by electricity sales put Teck on the TSE’s most actively traded list. The company saw more than 1.9 million shares change hands and gain 9 to $17.96. Most of the other base metal miners followed suit.

Sherritt International, which finally won over the Luscar Coal Income Fund trustees with a sweetened bid, gained 21, or 5%, to hit $4.45.

Sherritt said that there was a small explosion in the nickel furnace at its Murrin-Murrin nickel-cobalt mine in Western Australia. The company said nobody was injured and production would not be greatly impacted at the 45,000-tonne-a-year operation.

Noranda stood out, falling 20 to $16.05 on more than 1.1 million shares. The company posted weaker first-quarter earnings earlier this week.

The country’s bigger gold producers put in good performances. Barrick Gold climbed $1.24, or 5.2%, to $25.34 after reporting flat earnings for the first three months of the year. Placer Dome rose 95, or 6.5%, to $15.60. Placer posted lower earnings of US$16 million, or US5 per share, during the recent quarter.

Canada’s junior exchange drifted lower with all indexes ending the day in the red. The Canadian Ventures Exchange dropped 6.43 points, or 0.2%, to finish the day at 3,026.84. The Mining Index gave back all of yesterday’s gains, losing 37.10 points, or 0.6%, to close at 6,140.56.

Brasilca Mining topped the most actively traded list among junior explorers for the third straight day, ending the day at 19, up 3 on 885,500 shares. The company recently announced that Teck and Inco have teamed up to explore its Tucum iron oxide-copper-gold concession in Brazil.

Investors continued to bid up shares of Kensington Resources. The company tacked on 6 to 60 on 416,338 shares. The company recently tabled modelled diamond values and revenue calculations for the Fort a La Corne diamond play in Saskatchewan.

Shares in Idaho Consolidated Metals got a boost after the company announced an $854,000 private placement, climbing 15 to $1.65 on 131,225 shares. The financing will be used to fund a drill program on the junior’s platinum properties in the Stillwater complex of Montana.

Philex Gold drifted lower at the open, but rallied late in the day to close flat at $1.50 on 257,820 shares. The junior recently released more impressive intercepts from the Boyongan copper-gold prospect in the Philippines.