Vancouver Stock Exchange (October 14, 1991)

Despite the odd pocket of excitement and an upward move in gold bullion toward the US$360 mark, the resource index continued its slide toward the 500-point level, closing the week ended Oct. 8 at 514.16 for a loss of 7.69. The composite index slipped by 12.26 points to close at 560.17.

Springer Resources and Cove Resources managed to take top volume spots for the third week running, trading 8.7 million and 6.4 million shares respectively. Both issues were hit hard following the release of lower-than-anticipated assay results from the companies’ Unuk River joint venture with Granges Inc. Cove finished off 26 cents at 31 cents while Springer lost 70 cents to close at 73 cents. The companies plan to continue drilling with an additional 10,000 ft. budgeted.

A 3-hole drilling program on the Darlin property by partners Barkhor Resources and Chapleau Resources sparked some interest in the two issues. The property is about 11 miles southwest of Cominco’s Sullivan mine near Kimberly, B.C.; the companies hope to discover a similar orebody. The holes are being drilled on three separate geophysical anomalies. The first two holes were reported to have intersected narrow sulphide mineralization. Barkhor finished up 34 cents at 59 cents while Chapleau jumped 24 cents to close at 45 cents.

A 175-ft. intersection grading 0.22 oz. gold per ton at the Golden Quail property in San Bernardino Cty., Calif. helped joint venture partners Golden Hemlock Explorations and Golden Quail Resources. The results from the core hole are significantly higher than grades returned by reverse circulation drilling and have led companies to speculate that previous grades have been understated. (Preliminary reserves on the property were last stated at 2.5 million tons grading 0.077 oz. gold.) Golden Hemlock gained 30 cents from the $1.20 level while Golden Quail added 35 cents to finish at $1.15. The release of two additional holes from its Fish Lake property southwest of Williams Lake, B.C., did not seem to help Taseko Mines. Both holes intersected more than 2,300 ft. grading slightly less than previous results at about 0.30% copper and 0.015 oz. gold. Taseko finished down 87 cents at $7. Adrian Resources touched a low for the year of 89 cents before recovering to $1.03 for a net gain of three cents. The company recently released results from a number of holes from the Sky Creek property where it is earning a 51% interest from Skyline Gold. The drilling included a 48.5-ft. interval grading 0.13 oz. gold, 0.94 oz. silver, 0.17% lead, 5.74% zinc and 0.13% copper. A number of high-grade intersections at the Elk project in southern British Columbia did not seem to help Fairfield Minerals, which remained unchanged at the 85-cent level. Results were diluted to a 6.6-ft. mining width and included intersections grading 4.97 oz., 0.83 oz., 0.74 oz. and 0.62 oz. gold.