The S&P-TSX Venture Composite Index rode the rising tide of gold and the Canadian dollar to finish the Sept. 18-24 trading session up 85.16 points at 2,834.44. Average daily trading volumes climbed slightly to 92.5 million.
Those numbers sat in contrast to the venture market’s bearish trend: 58 juniors hit new lows over the session, while only 18 reached new highs.
Trading volume continued to be dominated by juniors with projects in the vicinity of Noront Resources’ Double Eagle project in Ontario’s James Bay Lowlands. Since the end of August, when Noront released initial field observations of 26 metres of visible copper in core from the first hole drilled, Noront has remained comfortably seated as one of the venture board’s top traders, moving 57 million shares in four days for a session gain of 27. This week, Noront’s neighbours, including MacDonald Mines Exploration, Spider Resources, KWG Resources, Probe Mines , Freewest Resources Canada, Canstar Resources , and Fancamp Exploration, also moved as top traders, though this session saw all of them finish down.
On Sept. 19, Noront announced that the Double Eagle discovery hole also contains significant platinum, palladium, and gold. And the end of the period saw more news — full results from the first two holes at Double Eagle, including 57.9 metres grading 2.02% nickel, 1.4% copper, and 1 to 5 grams per tonne platinum, palladium, silver, and gold. The news depressed the company’s share price slightly.
Junior West Hawk Development saw its share price double on news that Dongfei Wang from the Lu’An Mining Industry, a Chinese gas and coal-focused company, joined the management team of subsidiary West Hawk Energy. When the stock resumed trading, it spiked at 40, up from 19 on 3.8 million shares traded. West Hawk then announced an energy and coal chemical agreement with Lu’An to develop three energy and clean coal chemical facilities in China and North America.
Two major announcements from Iberian Minerals moved its price up 18 to close the session at $1.60. Iberian announced a US$115-million deal to buy 92% of the issued shares of Compania Minera Condestable, owner-operator of the Condestable copper mine in Peru, from Trafigura, which will also provide Iberian with a US$20-million loan to develop Aguas Tenidas, Iberian’s copper-zinc-lead-silver mine in Spain. To complete financing for Aguas Tenidas, Iberian raised its credit line with Investec Bank to US$200 million.
Groundbreaking at its new Chivo mine moved Impact Silver up 43, or 34%, to close the session at $1.63. Chivo will be the third silver-producing operation at the company’s Royal Mines of Zacualpan mining complex, some 100 km southwest of Mexico City. The mine is expected to contribute production of 60 tonnes per day by early 2008.
And Searchgold Resources, a junior with a market capitalization of only $33 million, moved 29.9 million shares over the session on news of strong drill results from its Bakoudou-Magnima gold project in Gabon.
TSX-V most active issues
| VOLUME(000s) | HIGH | LOW | CLOSE | CHANGE | ||
| MacDonald Mns | BMK | 75304 | 0.49 | 0.21 | 0.325 | -0.105 |
| Spider Res | SPQ | 73064 | 0.16 | 0.07 | 0.11 | -0.06 |
| KWG Res | KWG | 66049 | 0.14 | 0.065 | 0.075 | -0.085 |
| Noront Res | NOT | 40550 | 4.99 | 2.50 | 3.60 | -1.13 |
| Searchgold Res | RSG | 24458 | 0.37 | 0.22 | 0.285 | +0.06 |
| Probe Mines | PRB | 20448 | 1.55 | 0.65 | 0.92 | -0.23 |
| VMS Vent | VMS | 19866 | 0.465 | 0.25 | 0.37 | -0.02 |
| Freewest Res | FWR | 14710 | 0.33 | 0.21 | 0.24 | -0.11 |
| Canstar Res | ROX | 13766 | 0.215 | 0.12 | 0.155 | -0.095 |
| Fancamp Expl | FNC | 13338 | 2.55 | 1.19 | 1.74 | -0.81 |
TSX-V greatest percentage change
| VOLUME(000s) | HIGH | LOW | CLOSE | CHANGE | ||
| United Reef | URP | 3070 | 0.18 | 0.08 | 0.165 | +153.8 |
| West Hawk Dev | WHD | 4109 | 0.43 | 0.175 | 0.40 | +86.0 |
| Cons Fortress | CFR | 36 | 0.275 | 0.22 | 0.275 | +66.6 |
| Midland Expl | MD | 75 | 0.68 | 0.59 | 0.64 | +52.3 |
| Mill City Intl | MC | 452 | 0.20 | 0.13 | 0.20 | +48.1 |
| Strongbow Expl | SBW | 49 | 0.61 | 0.45 | 0.50 | +47.0 |
| Intl KRL Res | IRK | 1055 | 0.225 | 0.14 | 0.225 | +45.1 |
| TNR Gold | TNR | 972 | 0.37 | 0.24 | 0.37 | +45.1 |
| New Shoshoni V | NSV | 249 | 0.29 | 0.22 | 0.29 | +45.0 |
| Torch Rvr Res | TCR | 190 | 0.455 | 0.355 | 0.39 | +44.4 |
| Ripple Lk Diam | RLD | 136 | 0.07 | 0.02 | 0.02 | -55.5 |
| KWG Res | KWG | 66049 | 0.14 | 0.065 | 0.075 | -53.1 |
| Canstar Res | ROX | 13766 | 0.215 | 0.12 | 0.155 | -38.0 |
| Superior Diam | SUP | 140 | 0.33 | 0.25 | 0.25 | -37.5 |
| Carat Expl | CRZ | 62 | 0.70 | 0.40 | 0.40 | -36.5 |
| Temex Res | TME | 4460 | 0.75 | 0.45 | 0.53 | -36.1 |
| Zappa Res | ZPA | 844 | 0.145 | 0.09 | 0.09 | -35.7 |
| Spider Res | SPQ | 73064 | 0.16 | 0.07 | 0.11 | -35.2 |
| Paragon Minls | PGR | 721 | 0.44 | 0.26 | 0.27 | -34.1 |
| Intl Samuel Ex | SAZ | 10 | 0.07 | 0.05 | 0.05 | -33.3 |
TSX-V greatest value change
| VOLUME | CLOSE | CHANGE | ||
| Pan Oce Exp | POE | 1420714 | 5.37 | +0.62 |
| Whitemud Res | WMK | 35500 | 10.50 | +0.50 |
| Cons Thomp Irn | CLM | 910432 | 5.55 | +0.50 |
| Roca Mines | ROK | 1113322 | 3.10 | +0.49 |
| Gobimin | GMN | 137660 | 2.82 | +0.48 |
| JNR Res | JNN | 938202 | 2.80 | +0.48 |
| Northland Res | NAU | 165967 | 4.09 | +0.43 |
| Arizona Star | AZS | 195219 | 12.50 | +0.42 |
| Crosshair E&Mg | CXX | 1784223 | 1.86 | +0.38 |
| Mansfld Mnrls | MDR | 818060 | 3.63 | +0.36 |
| Seabridge Gold | SEA | 85106 | 30.05 | -2.26 |
| Pac Booker Min | BKM | 19480 | 10.50 | -1.23 |
| Noront Res | NOT | 40550203 | 3.60 | -1.13 |
| Fancamp Expl | FNC | 13337948 | 1.74 | -0.81 |
| SouthGobi Engy | SGQ | 13032 | 6.00 | -0.41 |
| Osisko Explora | OSK | 389957 | 5.45 | -0.33 |
| Bear Creek Mng | BCM | 196896 | 6.75 | -0.32 |
| Temex Res | TME | 4460400 | 0.53 | -0.30 |
| Avalon Vent | AVL | 168915 | 1.55 | -0.26 |
| Northern Plat | NTH | 13300 | 0.79 | -0.26 |
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