TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE – NOVEMBER 11-17

By the last day of the Nov. 11-17 trading session the S&P-TSX Venture Composite Index slid below 800 points and closed at a low not seen since January 2000. The Venture board lost 128.2 points to finish the week at 785.8. Trading was modest with daily volume averaging 61.4 million.

Not surprisingly, there were no new highs and no lack of new lows. The number of companies dredging the bottom hit 456.

Although trading affected companies across commodity sectors, those into coal had a particularly rough week as the price for the black stuff continued to slump. In terms of share price value, SouthGobi Energy Resources lost the most this week, down $2.10 to close at $6.10. SouthGobi began shipping coal from its Ovoot Tolgoi coal mine in Mongolia this fall.

Waratah Coal was another suffering coal company. It lost 38 to close the week out at 97. Earlier in the year, Waratah received the bad news that the Australian environment minister had rejected its proposed rail and port facility in Queensland. The company’s board recommended on Nov. 7 that its shareholders should reject a $1.41-per-share takeover bid for the junior by Mineralogy, a privately held Australian company.

The market hammered down a third coal-focused company, Goldsource Mines. Despite releasing positive news regarding the thermal quality of coal at its Border property in Saskatchewan, it lost 56 to close at $1.20. Goldsource announced results of thermal coal tests that showed coal at the property ranges between sub-bituminous C and bituminous C in quality. The company says it plans on going ahead with its 50-hole, 3,000-metre winter drill program at the 1,320-sq.-km property, where it has cut seams of coal between 20 and 40 metres thick.

Like the dismal performance of coal over recent weeks, the dulled sheen of copper prices may have taken a toll on companies such as Sherwood Copper. It lost 36 this week to close at $1.34 during a week in which it announced an approved merger with Capstone Mining and another batch of drill results from its Kutcho copper-zinc-gold-silver property in northern B. C. It returned as much as 32.7 metres grading 1.6% copper, 1.4% zinc, 0.28 gram gold per tonne and 27 grams silver starting 115 metres down-hole.

Likewise, the week saw Pacific Booker Minerals, with its Morrison copper-gold-molybdenum property, 35 km north of Granisle in central B. C., lose 79 to close at $4.16. The company has so far outlined a resource of 207 million measured and indicated tonnes grading 0.39% copper, 0.2 gram gold and 0.0005% molybdenum.

Of those companies that managed gains there was a notable one, Lucara Diamonds. The junior gained 15 to close at 36. It has been buoyed by test results from its Mothae diamond property in Lesotho that showed an average sample grade of 0.048 carat per tonne. The company intends to increase its stake in the project to 65% from 51%.

TSX-V most active issues
		VOLUME	WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Tournigan Engy	TVC	13572	0.23	0.16	0.17	-0.03
Largo Res	LGO	9262	0.12	0.05	0.06	-0.05
Crowflight Mnl	CML	8337	0.13	0.09	0.09	-0.03
Solitaire Mnls	SLT	7270	0.03	0.01	0.03	0.00
Merit Mng	MEM	6951	0.03	0.01	0.02	-0.01
US Silver	USA	5124	0.07	0.04	0.04	-0.02
Probe Res	PBR	4418	0.15	0.12	0.12	-0.02
Evolving Gold	EVG	4202	0.18	0.15	0.15	-0.01
Celtic Mnrls	CME	3706	0.14	0.10	0.12	-0.05
Western Uran	WUC	3469	0.59	0.50	0.52	-0.06

TSX-V greatest percentage change
		VOLUME	WEEK
		(000s)	HIGH	LOW	CLOSE	CHANGE
Supreme Res	SPR	225	0.09	0.04	0.04	+300.0
Newcastle Mnls	NCM	553	0.04	0.01	0.03	+200.0
Oremex Res	ORM	1680	0.09	0.03	0.08	+166.6
Celeste Copper	C	15	0.09	0.03	0.09	+125.0
Ultra Uranium	ULU	171	0.06	0.03	0.06	+100.0
Tawsho Mng	TAW	20	0.11	0.06	0.11	+ 83.3
Lucara Diam	LUC	204	0.36	0.25	0.36	+ 71.4
Columbus Gold	CGT	32	0.17	0.12	0.17	+ 54.5
Nikos Expl	NIK	20	0.03	0.03	0.03	+ 50.0
Lorraine Coppr	LLC	97	0.04	0.03	0.03	+ 50.0
Solid Res	SRW	167	0.10	0.01	0.01	-88.8
Orsa Vent	ORN	11	0.03	0.01	0.02	-80.0
Meritus Mnls	MER	57	0.05	0.05	0.05	-76.1
Troymet Expl	TYE	455	0.03	0.01	0.01	-75.0
Wildcat Silver	WS	39	0.12	0.05	0.07	-68.1
Belmont Res	BEA	135	0.03	0.01	0.01	-66.6
Fjordland Exp	FEX	290	0.09	0.03	0.03	-62.5
Merc Intl Mnls	MRK	129	0.20	0.15	0.15	-60.5
Antioquia Gold	AGD	30	0.05	0.04	0.04	-60.0
Takara Res	TKK	224	0.02	0.02	0.02	-60.0

TSX-V greatest value change
WEEK
		VOLUME	CLOSE	CHANGE
Whitemud Res	WMK	11446	2.98	+ 0.18
Lucara Diam	LUC	204000	0.36	+ 0.15
Carat Expl	CRZ	298000	0.40	+ 0.12
Macarthur Mnl	MMS	26500	1.30	+ 0.10
New Pac Metals	NUX	20652	0.65	+ 0.10
Louvem Mines	LOV	16000	0.35	+ 0.07
Cons Fortress	CFR	61000	0.24	+ 0.07
West High Yld	WHY	616400	0.19	+ 0.06
Columbus Gold	CGT	32400	0.17	+ 0.06
Lumina Copper	LCC	590850	0.35	+ 0.05
SouthGobi Engy	SGQ	32200	6.10	-2.10
Pac Booker Min	BKM	15100	4.16	-0.79
Chesapeake Gld	CKG	190610	2.60	-0.68
Maudore Minls	MAO	80459	1.25	-0.61
Goldsource Min	GXS	1329594	1.20	-0.56
Exeter Res	XRC	600150	1.44	-0.48
Waratah Coal	WCI	140250	0.97	-0.38
Sherwood Coppr	SWC	322240	1.34	-0.36
Energold Drill	EGD	283487	0.80	-0.25
Silverstone Rs	SST	1000000	0.47	-0.24