TSX Venture exchange slumps with gold

Vancouver — Canada’s junior exchange followed the gold price down over the holiday-shortened week ended July 2. The Standard & Poor’s-TSX Venture composite index lost 32.45 points, or 2.7%, to close at 1150.90.

Shares in American Bonanza Gold Mining lost 2 over the week and closed at 18 on a volume 5.1 million shares. The company has $2 million set aside for advancing the Copperstone project in Arizona, which hosts an estimated total resource of 2.1 million tons grading 0.58 oz. gold per ton.

Pacific Minerals closed at $1.19, down 16 with 1.3 million shares crossing the floor. The junior has US$3 million in the kitty, thanks to a private placement with Ivanhoe Mines. A total of US$2 million will be used to advance the JBS platinum-palladium property and the 217 gold project, both of which are in China.

Dynacor Mines lost a nickel and closed at 88, with 1.2 million shares changing hands. Dynacor recently closed a private placement of 1.7 million units at 85 apiece. One unit comprises a share plus half a share warrant. One warrant is exercisable for one share at $1.35. The $1.5 million in proceeds will go to boost production at the Acari project to 40,000 oz. per year by the end of 2003. The project is in Peru.

Pan Asia Mining lost a penny and closed at 5 with 1.1 million shares traded. The cash-strapped company has been striving to convert the existing open pit at the 701 Changma diamond mine in China’s Shandong province into a much larger underground mine.

Falling victim to a lower gold price, IMA Exploration tumbled 28 and closed at 43 on just over 1 million shares. The junior has been acquiring gold properties in Peru and Argentina. In the latest deal, it picked up the Victoria claims, next door to its Las Bayas property in southern Argentina.

Antoro Resources gained 5 to close at 38 on 996,000 shares. The company recently inked a deal to acquire a 90% stake in the White Lake property in Hemlo, Ont., by issuing 900,000 shares and granting a 1% net smelter return royalty to MJL Explorations, plus a 10% non-participating interest in the property to Geotest.

Caussa Capital remained flat a 3 with 944,000 shares traded. The junior has secured an option to earn a 100% interest in the Churchill gold property in Ontario. Situated in the Shining Tree area, Churchill encompasses two new gold occurrences discovered by local prospectors last year. Gold mineralization at Churchill occurs in the H-G and Scheelite zones.

Donner Minerals tacked on 4 and closed at 57 with 853,000 shares traded. The Harvey Keats-led company is gearing up for a 3,500-metre, 12-to-20-shallow-hole program of drilling at the South Voisey’s Bay project in Labrador.

Frank Callaghan-led International Wayside Gold Mines managed to add a penny to close at 17 on 837,000 shares. The company is drilling the northeastern extension of the Bonanza ledge discovery near Wells, B.C.

Axmin lost a penny and closed at 32 on 755,000 shares. The junior announced that 160 rotary-air-blast holes had been completed on the Passendro project within the Bambari permit in the Bandas Archean greenstone belt of the Central African Republic.