TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE (March 17, 2008)

With gold posting a modest retreat from recent record high territory, the S&P-TSX Venture Composite Index dropped 130.44 points to close the March 4-10 trading session at 2,664.13. Trading volumes also retracted over the session, averaging 97.6 million shares per day.

The junior board continued to show a bearish slant with just 26 explorers managing new 52-week highs while 100 slipped to new annual lows.

McFaulds Lake-area explorer KWG Resources posted top volumes for the period, closing off half a penny at 10 per share on almost 24.5 million shares traded. The company recently started drilling on its Freewest option property along with partners Freewest Resources Canada and Spider Resources, which saw weekly trading volumes of 15.8 million shares and 8.5 million shares, respectively. Freewest inched up 3 to 40 per share while Spider slipped 2 to close at 12.5 per share.

Shares of Snowfield Development plummeted 61% over the trading session — closing down 27.5 to 17.5 apiece on more than 24 million shares traded. The company reported poor mini-bulk sample results that indicated very low diamond counts from its Mud Lake kimberlite in the Northwest Territories.

Hathor Exploration built on last week’s strong gains, adding another 29 to its share price. The stock closed the session at $2.23 on trading volume of almost 15 million shares. Recent drilling on Hathor’s 90%-owned Midwest Northeast uranium project, in Saskatchewan’s Athabasca basin, returned an 11.9-metre intercept of 5.29% U3O8 that included some narrow high-grade intervals of up to 40.2% U3O8 across 20 cm.

Penny-trader Luzon Minerals inched up half a cent to 4 per share on more than 14 million shares traded. The Bolivian-focused junior was recently served a statement of claim from Aussie company Republic Gold, which claims Luzon owes it roughly A$2.2 million. Early last year, Republic launched a takeover offer for Luzon that it subsequently abandoned.

Trading in Iciena Ventures perked up over the week, with the stock closing down half a penny at 12.5 per share on more than 12.5 million shares traded. Recent stream sampling on its Batovi diamond project in Brazil turned up several hundred samples of indicator minerals. The junior also recently closed a 5 private placement that raised $250,000.

On trading volume of 9 million shares, Latin American Minerals posted a 6 gain to close at 76 per share. A recently filed technical report for its Paso Yobai gold project in Paraguay recommends further exploration work, including drilling.

Shares of New Millennium Capital gained 30 on the session to close at $1.40 apiece on trading volume of 4.3 million. The company recently boosted resources at its KeMag iron ore deposit in Quebec by 71.5%. The resource now stands at 1.35 billion measured and indicated tonnes averaging 31.3% iron head grade, plus 992 million inferred tonnes at a 31.4% iron head grade.