TSX Venture Exchange -December 8-14

For a third consecutive five-day trading period, the S&P/TSX Venture composite index bounced around the 1,400 level. Between Dec. 8 and 14, the index lost 9.32 points to close at 1,425.08. A 32-point dip on the first day of the reporting period accounted for the overall loss. Otherwise, the Venture board incrementally regained about 13 points over four subsequent trading days.

An army of 52-week highs continued to outnumber 52-week lows, with 70 companies reaching the former and 27 the latter. Though precious metal prices dipped moderately, while base metals held more or less steady over the reporting period, it was still by and large gold projects propelling investor excitement.

A prime example was East Asia Minerals, which shot up $1.20 to close at $3.83. Happy news from a single drill-hole at its Miwah project in Indonesia fuelled East Asia’s latest gains.

Though it was only a lone intercept, it was a nice one. Hole 14 hit 101 metres grading 1.38 grams gold per tonne starting 76 metres down-hole. East Asia noted hole 14 was beyond Miwah’s main gold zone and signified “potential to expand considerably” the target’s mineralized area. So far, it has drill-tested 900 metres of strike length at the 85%-owned Miwah property, a high-sulphidation epithermal gold project.

Another on the gold list was Rainy River Resources. Its shares marched upwards 91¢ to $3.54. Rainy River’s fortunes stem from the potential of its Rainy River gold project in northwestern Ontario, not far from the provincial border with Manitoba. So far, Rainy River has outlined an indicated resource estimate of 55.6 million tonnes grading 1.24 grams gold for contained gold of 2.2 million oz.

However, the company recently noted it still has 110 holes with which to update that resource estimate.

Interest in its California gold project in Colombia boosted Galway Resources’ shares. Galway was up 33¢ to $1.66 on news it had started drilling at the project. The 4,500-metre drill program is following up on earlier sampling that showed high grades of gold and silver in historic adits on the project. Anaconda Mining operated a gold mine on the property for a year until 1947, when armed conflict intervened.

Bets were on for Canadian Shield, up 56¢ to $1.65. It announced it was going it alone in Peru with a database of mineral-related information it acquired through purchase of a 90% interest in Gallant Minerals Peru. Canadian Shield had earlier penned a non-binding agreement with Kinross Gold to generate precious metals prospects using the database. Given the metals market, however, Canadian Shield says it thinks it best to forge ahead on its own for a while.

In absolute terms, the two companies with the greatest losses over the five-day trading period were Maudore Minerals, down 55¢ to $3.95, and Anfield Ventures, off 45¢ to $2.85.

TSX-V most active issues
		VOLUME		WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Freewest Res	FWR	70297	0.99	0.88	0.96	+ 0.06
Gold Hawk Res	CGK	13548	0.04	0.03	0.04	0.00
Svit Gold	SDP	13355	0.22	0.12	0.18	+ 0.04
Avion Res	AVR	12157	0.47	0.38	0.46	0.00
Appleton Expl	AEX	11660	0.19	0.13	0.17	+ 0.03
Canasia Indust	CAJ	11161	0.19	0.14	0.14	-0.02
Allana Res	AAA	9427	0.37	0.26	0.31	+ 0.04
TagishLkGold	TLG	8437	0.04	0.02	0.03	+0.01
Noront Res	NOT	7749	2.57	1.92	2.09	-0.38
Spider Res	SPQ	7662	0.06	0.05	0.05	0.00

TSX-V greatest percentage change
		VOLUME		WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Zinco Mng	ZIM	439	0.31	0.12	0.27	+145.4
Firesteel Res	FTR	10	0.10	0.05	0.10	+100.0
Rome Res	RMR	371	0.42	0.28	0.42	+ 82.6
Highbank Res	HBK	4818	0.11	0.05	0.09	+ 80.0
Diagnos	ADK	3830	0.54	0.30	0.50	+ 66.6
Dot Res	DOT	63	0.12	0.06	0.10	+ 66.6
Crazy Horse Rs	CZH	190	0.50	0.31	0.41	+ 51.8
Canadn Shield	EXP	402	1.68	1.09	1.65	+ 51.3
La Quinta Res	LAQ	19	0.12	0.11	0.12	+ 50.0
NewShoshoniV	NSV	490	0.14	0.09	0.12	+ 50.0
Chilean Gold	CHN	43	0.38	0.22	0.22	-40.5
Tribute Res	TRB	75	0.12	0.10	0.12	-40.0
Verbina Res	VUR	11	0.29	0.21	0.21	-38.2
Taranis Res	TRO	15	0.15	0.15	0.15	-37.5
Goldbank Mng	GLB	47	0.08	0.07	0.07	-36.3
Deloro Res	DLL	184	0.16	0.11	0.11	-35.2
Agau Res	AGS	12	0.09	0.04	0.04	-33.3
C2C Gold	CCN	494	0.03	0.02	0.02	-33.3
Oro Gold Res	OGR	3829	0.60	0.40	0.41	-30.5
Nevgold Res	NDG	29	0.25	0.17	0.17	-29.1

TSX-V greatest value change
WEEK
		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
East Asia Mnls	EAS	5682530	3.83	+ 1.20
Rainy River Rs	RR	2165972	3.54	+ 0.91
Canadn Shield	EXP	402125	1.65	+ 0.56
Quest Uranium	QUC	1277201	2.72	+ 0.33
Galway Res	GWY	4710368	1.66	+ 0 .33
Metalex Vent	MTX	56610	1.19	+ 0.31
Diagnos	ADK	3829655	0.50	+ 0.20
Rome Res	RMR	371480	0.42	+ 0.19
Zinco Mng	ZIM	439122	0.27	+ 0.16
Lara Expl	LRA	173500	0.91	+ 0.15
Maudore Minls	MAO	280118	3.95	-0.55
Anfield Vent	ANF	141750	2.85	-0.45
Noront Res	NOT	7748744	2.09	-0.38
Bear Creek Mng	BCM	828436	4.05	-0.22
Oro Gold Res	OGR	3828600	0.41	-0.18
Lovitt Res	LRC	34500	0.65	-0.15
Chilean Gold	CHN	43145	0.22	-0.15
James Bay Res	JBR	126833	0.51	-0.13
Grayd Res	GYD	1272500	0.61	-0.13
Dorato Res	DRI	2331695	1.09	-0.13