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 |
Be the first to comment on "TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE – NOVEMBER 11-17"