Silver was U.S. market darling, Apr. 4-8

Twenty companies on the New York Stock Exchange reached new 52-week highs, while none fell to new 52-week lows, during the Apr. 4-8 trading week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average inched up 3.33 points or 0.03% to close at 12,380.05, while the S&P 500 index dropped 4.24 points or 0.32% to finish at 1,328.17. The Philadelphia Gold and Silver index climbed 14.02 points or 6.52% to 228.95.

With the price of silver breaking through US$40 per oz. for the first time since 1980, when it touched a record US$50.35 per oz., mining silver has become a very profitable business. Shares of Pan American Silver gained US$5.72 a share to close the trading week at US$42.65 on no news, while shares of BHP Billiton, which mines about 42 million ounces of silver a year at its Cannington mine in Queensland, also jumped with a gain of US$4.48 to US$101.32. Silver Wheaton added US$4.08 to US$46.91 and Silver Standard Resources advanced US$3.12 to US$35.08 per share.

Goldcorp increased US$5.21 per share to US$54.44 on news of an updated feasibility study for its recently acquired Cerro Negro project in Argentina.  Highlights included average annual gold production for the first five years of about 550,000 ounces with average cash costs of less than US$200 per oz. gold. It is estimated that Cerro Negro will have a mine life of twelve years with initial production starting in mid-2013. Throughput will be 4,000 tonnes per day and capex to full production will amount to US$750 million. Proven and probable reserves have also increased 100% to 4.3 million ounces.

Randgold Resources climbed US$3.60 to US$87.20 per share on no news, while Allied Nevada was up US$3.50 per share to US$40.56, in part due to a first quarter earnings report. The company announced preliminary Q1 operating results for its Hycroft mine near Winnemuca, Nevada, with production of 20,718 oz. gold and 61,751 oz. silver.

In terms of specialty metals, rising antimony prices helped send US Antimony skyward, up 167.2% to US$1.47 per share  – the highest percentage change of the trading week. Prices of 99.6% antimony metal were running at an average of US$14,950 per tonne in February 2011, up from US$6,661 per tonne in February 2009, according to Metal Prices Bulletin. In 2010 US Antimony’s revenues jumped 121% year on year with profit of US$805,213 on sales of US$9.07 million. In 2009 the company posted a loss of US$343,492 on sales of US$4.10 million. 6