TSX down again, Sept. 29 – Oct. 3

Canada’s main stock index posted its fifth straight weekly decline despite a positive jobs report in the U.S., weighed down by concerns including whether the central government in Beijing would move against pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, the arrival of the first Ebola case in the U.S., a stronger U.S. dollar weighing on resource companies and the price of bullion (US$1,190 per oz. on Oct. 3) being at its lowest in 15 months. The S&P/TSX Composite Index fell 1.6% to 14,789.78, the S&P/TSX Global Gold Index dropped 5% to 162.14 and the S&P/TSX Capped Metals & Mining Index lost 5.8% to 768.39.

Shares of Dominion Diamond surged 84¢ to $16.04 after the company’s CEO said he expected October would be a big month for the company. Robert Gannicott made the remarks at Dundee Capital Markets’ first-ever diamond conference on Oct. 1 at the Trump Hotel in Toronto. The CEO said the company expects to release a prefeasibility study on the Jay pipe at the Ekati diamond mine near the end of the month, and anticipates that Rio Tinto will make a decision on developing the A-21 pipe at the Diavik diamond mine before the end of October.

Petaquilla Minerals jumped 78% to 8¢ per share after announcing it has arranged a US$18-million bridge loan to fund general corporate and working capital purposes. Petaquilla says the bridge loan will form part of a larger US$60 million financing to be disbursed over one year and linked to a gold purchase and sales agreement with Imppetrol Investment S.A. Under the deal, Imppetrol will buy 300,000 oz. gold from Petaquilla, which Petaquilla will deliver over three years starting in January 2015 at a price per ounce set at the London Bullion Market Association gold a.m. price fix on the day of sale, minus a 10% discount. Petaquilla’s wholly owned Molejon mine in Panama is 130 km west of Panama City.

For the second week in a row B2Gold was the most actively traded stock. On Oct. 3 it reported it had completed its merger with Papillon Resources and that it expects to produce 395,000 to 420,000 oz. gold in 2014 and 540,000 oz. gold in 2015. Yamana Gold was the second most actively traded, with its shares closing down 45¢ at $6.52. It announced preliminary operating results for the third quarter which showed it produced more than 390,000 equivalent oz. gold, up 17% over the second quarter, at all-in sustaining costs within its annual guidance of between US$825 and US$875 per equivalent oz. gold.

Shares of First Quantum Minerals were down $1.15 at $20.85. On Sept. 30 the company reported that operations at its Guelb Moghrein copper-gold mine in Mauritania had resumed after a strike action by some of the mine’s unionized employees that started on Sept. 18. First Quantum estimated that the mine’s full-year production would be short 2,800 tonnes copper and 3,550 oz. gold.

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