TSX Venture rises, Aug. 3-7

The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index rose by 2.60% to finish the Aug. 3-7 trading week at 739.98. Spot gold continued to set new records, rising US$58.70 per oz., or 2.97%, to US$2,034.80 per ounce.

Shares of Abraplata Resources jumped by 78.72% to 42¢ per share. The company increased the size of a non-brokered private placement first announced on Aug. 6 from $15 million to $18 million. Eric Sprott said he planned to purchase up to $10 million in the initial offering. Abraplata plans to issue up to 66.67 million units at a price of 27¢ per unit. Each unit will consist of one common share and one-half of one common share purchase warrant. Each warrant will entitle the subscriber to purchase one additional common share at 40¢ per share. The proceeds from the financing will be used for exploration at its silver, gold and copper projects in Argentina and Chile, and for general corporate purposes.

Chesapeake Gold’s shares rose by 38.54% to $7.19. Eric Sprott agreed to purchase $15 million of a $20 million non-brokered private placement of 4 million common shares at a price of $5 per share. Once the financing closes, Sprott’s stake in the company will have grown from 11.8% to 16.4%. The Sun Valley Gold Master Fund will purchase the remaining $5 million of the placement, taking its interest in the company from 7.4% to 8.6%.  Chesapeake Gold plans to use the proceeds from the financing for metallurgical testing at its flagship Metates gold-silver project, located in Mexico’s Durango state, as well as for regional exploration and general working capital.

Shares of Benchmark Metals rose 37% to $1.37 per share. The company released positive results from a drill hole at its flagship Lawyers gold-silver project in the Golden Horseshoe area of north-central British Columbia. Drill hole 20CCRC003 intersected 58 metres grading 1.9 grams gold per tonne and 91.96 grams silver per tonne (or 3.05 grams gold-equivalent per tonne) starting from surface. The assay is the first result from 20,000 metres of drilling that the company has completed, and part of a planned 50,000-metres drill program. The historic Lawyers gold-silver mine produced 171,200 oz. gold and 3.6 million oz. silver between 1989 and 1992, according to Benchmark Metals.