Venture stumbles in August 15-19 period

Vancouver – Uncertainty and caution continued to disrupt markets in the August 15-19 trading period as the S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index dropped 52.52 points to close at 1,764.84 points. While up from the low of 1,682 points hit in early August, there is little sign of a market rally for junior explorers despite rocketing gold and silver prices. Trading for the period was some of the lowest seen recently at an average of just 69 million shares traded daily.

Long-awaited drill results helped make Majescor Resources one of the biggest percentage gainers of the period, up 9¢ or 56% to 25¢ on 4.3 million shares traded. Results from the company’s 2009 drill program at its Somine gold-copper project in Haiti included a 10.5 metre interval grading 77 grams gold per tonne and 0.17% copper, which included a 1.5-metre section grading 537 grams gold, and another drill hole hit 6 metres carrying 3 grams gold. The company controls roughly 66.5% of the project.

For the second time in a month trading in Goldex Resources shot up significantly. The company saw 13 million shares traded, with over 10.6 million of those traded on the day it released preliminary assay results from its flagship El Pato property in Guatemala. In the initial results, hole 10 hit 30.5 metres grading 5.04 grams gold from 98 metres depth, including 9.2 metres grading 12.38 grams gold. In late July the company saw over 11 million on no news leading to a 2¢ bump, while the latest activity had the company’s share price ending even in the period at 7.5¢.

GoGold Resources had the second biggest value gains of the week, up 44¢ to $1.82, as it continues a remarkable upwards climb. Since mid-July the company has climbed from around 90¢, while the company was trading as low as 20¢ late last year before acquiring exploration grounds in Mexico in February. Since acquiring the San Diego project in Mexico’s Durango State the company has been busy sampling and trenching and recently launched an 11,000-metre drill program on its Mexico property and a 1,500-metre drill program on its initial Rambler gold-copper project in Newfoundland.

Prophecy Platinum beat out GoGold for the biggest value gain, up 61¢ to close at $4.20 in a period that saw it release its annual information form. The company’s share price initially shot up in July from 70¢ to a high of $5.63 on a major resource estimate for its Wellgreen nickel-pgm project in southwest Yukon, while it has fluctuated quite a bit since then. Prophecy Platinum recently hosted a number of analysts and investors for a site visit to the project, while on August 22 the company announced it had hit 472 metres grading 0.43% nickel equivalent in hole 11-184.

Canaco Resources was third for value gains with a 41¢ climb to $3.09 on 3.6 million shares traded. The company announced in the period that it was expanding the drill program at its Handeni gold project in Tanzania by about 95,000 metres, nearly doubling the total it is targeting for the end of June 2012. The company also announced it had arranged a $5-million preliminary economic assessment program for the project, also to be completed by June, 2012.