Vancouver Stock Exchange Selective and narrow trading

Wednesday close, Dec 3

With market volume remaining at respectable levels, trading activity has been quite selective and directed at a fairly narrow range of speculative issues. Tuesday’s volume was 15 million shares and the index was off 5.6 points, similar to today’s decline, which pushed the index down to 1391.4.

There were a number of active issues at presstime including Atlanta Gold which was 55 cents stronger at $4.50 on a turnover of 197,600 shares. The rcompany is headed up by Olaf Tolpinrud, president of Grandview Resources, which operates a major gold heap leach mine in California. Atlanta recently raised money to explore a gold property in Idaho, also with heap leach potential.

Skyline Explorations was also active today, but it was off 25 cents to $6.38. Over our report period it was a different story, however. The stock was ahead $2.78 to $6.63 and it touched $7.25 at one point yesterday. It was also the busiest trader during the period, with a volume of 1.8 million shares. Skyline is exploring a gold property in northern B.C. and has been reporting some often spectacular results. (If there is any bad news, it hasn’t released it).

Tandem Resources and Ronrico Explorations were both busy and better in active trading, reflecting their direct interest in what is shaping up as a major platinum play in the Quebec-Labrador trough (see separate story). Ronrico reached a new high of $1.62 and Tandem was unchanged at $1.50 on volume of 6,000 shares.

Carnes Creek Explorations, which recently negotiated a settlement of its liabilities and has been exploring a gold property in California, jumped 10 cents to 28 cents on a volume of 1.3 million shares. Caribbean Resources posted a 95 cents increase to $2.95 and Highmark closed the week 89 cents better at $2.48. Caribbean has been exploring a property in the Mishibishu Lake area of northwestern Ontario while Highmark has been negotiating the rights to a “solar concentrator.”

Black Swan climbed 55 cents to $3.85 and Consolidated Cinola was ahead 50 cents to $5. Black Swan has been having considerable success on a number of gold properties in Australia and Cinola was recently taken over by an Australian company. Vinola has a major gold deposit in the Queen Charlotte Islands.

New listings for the week included: Winzen International (formerly York Petroleum), Arapahoe Mining (formerly Nevcal Resources), Noront Resources and Atlanta Gold.