Venture manages small gain in Aug.8-12 period

Vancouver – The market rollercoaster continued in the August 8 to 12 trading period for the S&P TSX Venture Exchange. The board plunged 129.21 points on the first day before climbing 135.07 points over the following four days to eek out a gain of 5.86 points, ending at 1,817.36 points. Volume was in line with recent levels at around 95 million shares traded daily.

Hardly flinching in the recent correction, Papuan Precious Metals climbed 19¢ or 39% to 68¢ in the period, having traded as low as 27¢ in early July. The Papua New Guinea-focused company released no news during the period, but in early August it announced a copper discovery at its New Hanover gold-copper project, including a 189-metre interval in hole 7 with visible copper, though assays are pending. Assay results from hole 1 returned 6 metres grading 0.17% copper and 0.31 grams gold from 20 metres depth. Papuan Precious Metals changed its name from Jalna Minerals when it instituted a share rollback last September.

Recently-listed Monster Mining stayed in the black, climbing 9¢ to close at 55¢ on light volume. The Yukon-focused company listed in mid-May and has since optioned the Red Ridge polymetallic property south of Whitehorse and started a 1,460-km airborne geophysics program on its 66-sq.-km Keno-Lightning silver-lead-zinc project in the Keno Hill district. The Keno-Lightning project is adjacent to Alexco Resource‘s Bellekeno mine.  

Kaminak Gold share price plunged 45¢ early in the period before rallying 70¢ on impressive drill results and then dipping again, ultimately ending up 8¢ at $3.95 in the period. The drill results from the Double Double zone at its Coffee project were some of the best yet released by the company, with a stand-out intercept of 4-metres grading 74.9 grams gold starting at 105 metres downhole. Other results included 2 metres grading 25.4 grams gold, 3 metres averaging 12.15 grams gold and 2 metres carrying 14.35 grams gold.

Atlanta Gold had a burst of activity in the period with just under 10 million shares traded as the company managed to end up half a cent at 11.5¢ in the period. The activity follows a 4¢ gain on August 5 that saw 5.6 million shares traded on no news. In the most recent period Atlanta announced it had closed a property deal for a 2.3 hectare property just outside of Boise, Idaho that will serve as infrastructure and service space for its nearby Atlanta project. Also in the period Atlanta Gold closed a second and third tranche of financing, brining total gross proceeds in the three tranches to $2.5 million by issuing 35.7 million units at 7¢.

Renaissance Gold, created last fall with AuEx Venture’s properties not acquired by Fronteer Gold, saw some of the biggest gain in the period by climbing 14¢, closing at $1.79. The only news out recently for the company was the appointment of Tim Janke to the company’s board of directors. Janke has extensive experience working in Nevada and has held the position of part-time chief operating officer of Renaissance since inception, and held the same position at AuEx Ventures. In late July the company optioned its flagship Spruce Mountain project in Elko County to Sumitomo.