Venture board climbs on heavy volume

Vancouver – For the S&P-TSX Venture Composite Index, the four-day week following Thanksgiving was marked by record trading volumes that continued the board on its 12-week long ascent. Over Oct. 12-15 the board gained 37.65 points to close at 1,822.53, the first time it has risen above 1,800 since the crash of 2008.

Trading volumes were exceptionally high, averaging 167 million trades daily. The 201 million trades completed on Oct. 13 marked an all-time record volume for the Venture Exchange. And the volume carried more positive implications than negative: over the week only 64 Venture-listed companies fell to new 52-week lows, while 108 juniors rose to new highs.

The top trader over the high-volume week was Majestic Gold, which moved 15.5 million shares to close unchanged at 16.5¢. The company operates the Song Jiagou gold mine in Shandong province, China; new operations numbers show the mine produced 1,234 oz. gold in the third quarter, bringing production for the first three quarters to 4,709 and revenues to US$1.46 million. The company is currently building a new mill at Song Jiagou that will increase throughput to 7,500 tonnes daily, up from 1,500.

Shares of Amazon Mining jumped $1.14 to reach $3.39 on news the company’s ThermoPotash product, a slow release, non-chloride fertilizer, significantly reduces the amount of limestone a farmer must use to correct soil acidity. Most fertilizers have the downside of increasing soil acidity, which necessitates the use of neutralizing limestone, but ThermoPotash reduces the need for limestone by almost half. Amazon Mining’s Cerrado Verde project in Brazil is home to a large resource of Verde slate, a potash-rich rock from which the company plans to produce ThermoPotash.

Batero Gold, which listed in late July and has since seen its share price shoot up from 80¢ to above $2, closed a $15.76-million financing, selling 9.8 million units at $1.60 a piece with each unit comprising a share and half a warrant. The company will use the funds to advance its Batero-Quinchia gold project in Colombia.

Mountain Lake Resources continued its ascent, spurred on by drill results from the Valentine project in central Newfoundland that included 6.53 grams gold per tonne over 19 metres. Drilling from a barge has enabled Mountain Lake to test zones that were previously inaccessible. Since April the company’s share price has risen to 90¢ from 25¢.

And the two hottest gold stories out of the Yukon both continued to move over the week. Kaminak Gold released the first drill results from the fourth zone at its Coffee project, known as Kona, which included 2.2 grams gold over 57 metres and 1.9 grams gold over 23 metres. Kaminak shares gained 12¢ over the week to close at $3.40. Atac Resources, on the other hand, did not release any news but still reached a new share price high, adding 43¢ to reach $7.29.