Venture edges down slightly Nov. 8-12

Vancouver – A long streak of upward momentum on the S&P TSX Venture stalled slightly in the Nov. 8-12 week, with two days of losses edging out three days of gains to have the board end down 1.82 points at 2007.09. Volume was still high at an average of 164 million daily trades, though the average was somewhat skewed by a record-breaking 230 million trades on Nov. 9.

Despite the minor point drop, the bulls still charged past the bears, with fully 191 Venture-listed companies hitting new highs and only 38 hitting new lows.

Bonterra Resources topped market indicators as the most traded and biggest percent gainer on the Venture while also ranking high on the overall value gain after releasing some impressive drill results from its Eastern Extension property in Quebec. Rush assays for hole 10-01 returned 13.5 metres grading 17.06 grams gold per tone from 25 metres and hole 10-02 had 7.73 metres carrying 21.24 grams gold from 40 metres depth, including a 1-metre interval averaging 77.8 grams gold. Bonterra saw its share price climb 47¢ or 213.6% to 69¢ on 38.4 million shares traded.

Proving the worth of good neighbours, Atocha Resources‘ share price climbed 8¢ or 88.8% to 17¢ on 9.7 million shares traded after Detour Gold received approval to start construction at its Detour Lake property north of Timmins. In a press release, Atocha promoted the fact that its Atkinson gold project lies 15 km south of Detour Lake, and that Atocha finished a 1,200-metre drill program on the property earlier this year, with more exploration to come.

After a long wait, Christopher James Gold shareholders approved a reverse takeover by Chesapeake Gold. The go-ahead gave Chesapeake the biggest share value increase on the board, up $2.30 or 23.3% to $12.18 on a total of 180,000 shares traded. The deal has Christopher James acquiring Chesapeake’s Talapoosa gold-silver project in Nevada and its La Cecilia and La Gitana gold-silver projects in Mexico. In exchange, Christopher James will issue Chesapeake 32 million shares after it does a 10:1 share consolidation of its 56 million shares.

Canadian International Mineral‘s share price shot up after the company issued an update on the Carbo rare earth project in B.C. that it’s earning a 75% interest in from Commerce Resources. Canadian’s share price climbed 27¢ or 73% to end at 64¢ on 15.5 million shares traded. While not releasing any assay results, the company reported that it had completed 1,200 metres of drilling on the 2,800-ha property northeast of Prince George. Canadian had already climbed 17¢ late the week before on news that it was pressing ahead with road construction and stripping at its Deadhorse Creek rare earth project in Ontario.

Renaissance Gold wasted little time establishing itself, jumping 45¢ or 64% to $1.15 on 1.4 million shares traded in its first week of active trading. The company was formed out of the acquisition of AuEx by Fronteer Gold, whereby AuEx shareholders received 0.5 of a share in Renaissance for each AuEx share, as well as 66¢ cash and 0.645 of a Fronteer share. Renaissance holds all of what were AuEx’s exploration properties outside of the Pequop district in Nevada.