TSX Venture remains near all-time lows, Dec. 18-22

The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index sits near the lowest point in its history, despite posting marginal gains during trading, as it jumped 3.83 points, en route to a 502.04-point weekly close. In global economic news, China’s government announced it would ease the country’s economic regression, with larger fiscal deficits and stimulus measures. Meanwhile, Statistics Canada reported that Canadian average weekly employee earnings rose 0.5% in October.

Gains were fuelled by rising commodity futures, with February contracts for gold bullion gaining 2.1%, or US$22.30, en route to a US$1,073.10 per oz. close, and March contracts for copper rising 3.8%, or US7.8¢, before finishing at US$2.11 per lb. February contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude oil jumped 4.4%, or US$1.54, en route to a US$36.49-per-barrel close.

Kennady Diamonds topped the value-added category after announcing diamond-recovery results from its Kennady North discovery in the Northwest Territories. The company gained 60¢ on 108,326 shares traded, before finishing at $3 per share.

On Dec. 17, Kennady reported results from a 0.93-tonne sample recovered during core drilling at its Kelvin North Lobe, which returned a 3.55-carat-per-tonne sample grade for diamonds of commercial size. Over 2015, the company has processed 14.7 tonnes of core samples from Kelvin North, which have returned an average sample grade of 2.83 carats per tonne.

Kennady plans to recover a 500-tonne bulk sample from the North Lobe in early 2016, which could deliver more than 1,200 carats to support revenue modelling for the Kelvin kimberlite.

Explorer Equitas Resources had nearly the most shares traded after an exploration update from its Garland nickel project in Labrador. The company saw 4 million shares change hands before it closed up 1¢ at 7¢ per share.

Equitas recently completed a five-hole drill program at Garland to test for massive sulphide systems hosting potentially economic nickel and platinum group metals mineralization, which could be prevalent in the Labrador region.

The company reported that hole 15-5 tested the Cominco showing and intersected disseminated pyrrhotite-chalcopyrite-pyrite over a 69-metre interval from surface. Meanwhile, hole 15-4 aimed at geophysical anomaly Q, which produced a “complex anomalous response that could indicate a good-quality conductor in or near the hole.”

Chesapeake Gold was on the rise after releasing an update on a prefeasibility study at its wholly owned Metates gold-silver project in Durango State, Mexico. The company jumped 15¢ on 174,120 shares traded, before finishing at $1.96 per share.