Trading Summary (December 19, 2001)

After two solid days of gains, the Toronto Stock Exchange slipped 85.37 points or more than 1% to end Wednesday’s session at 7,501.1. Leading the broad slide was the Metals & Minerals subindex, which fell 157.97 points or nearly 3.8%. The tech-heavy Industrial Products subgroup was close behind dropping 3.5%. The Gold & Precious Minerals subindex returned all of Tuesday’s gains plus some falling 175.48 points or 3.4%. The market’s only bright spots were the Oil & Gas and Pipelines subindices, which gained 1.6% and 1%, respectively.

In New York, gold suffered a US$5.60-per-oz. setback to US$275.00 per oz. The rest of the shinnies followed suit. Silver dropped US11 to US$4.31 per oz. The base metals were mixed in Europe; nickel gained US$360 to US$5,565.00 per tonne.

The most actively traded mining issue belonged to Barrick Gold, which fell 80 to $25.42 with more than 3.3 million shares traded. Aluminum giant Alcan fell $2.85 to $56.40 on about 2.3 million shares.

On Wednesday, Alcan announced additional components of its restructuring program. During the next three months, Alcan will close two facilities in Canada and one facility in the U.S. The company will divest its extrusion operations in Malaysia and Thailand. The moves are part of a plan to cut the company’s workforce by up to 7%.

The other gold majors lined up behind Barrick. Placer Dome shed $1.01 to $17.10; Kinross Gold fell 6 to $1.12; TVX Gold lost a penny to 63; Franco-Nevada Mining lost 75 to $22.80; and Cambior slipped 1 to 72.

In the junior ranks, Geomaque Explorations surrendered a 1.5 or more than 21% to 5.5. Late on Tuesday, Geomaque announced that it reached an agreement with its principal lender, Denver-based Resource Capital Fund II to complete the restructuring of its credit and security arrangements. The deal includes quarterly payments to RCF and Sococo de Costa Rica, which provides contract mining services at Geomaque Honduras’ Vueltas del Rio mine. Also under the deal, Geomaque has raised, via private placement, just under $2 million. In the boardroom, a new board of directors and senior management team have been appointed.

The base metal miners didn’t fare much better. Noranda led the group falling 3 to $14.42 with about 1.1 million shares changing hands. Inco fell 50 to $26.08; Falconbridge ended 29 lower at $15.82; Teck Cominco dropped 74 to $11.76. According to the National Post, Inco may be facing a much larger clean-up task in Colborne, Ont. The nickel giant may have to clean up nickel-contaminated soil at 1,000 properties in the area, instead of 25 it was ordered to work on in October.

Canada’s junior exchange drifted modestly lower on heavy volume. The S&P-CDNX Composite Index ended the session down 1.08 points, or 0.1% to close at 973.92.

Champion Resources ended the day flat at 5 on 272,000 shares. The junior is proposing a 12-for-1 roll back in its shares. The consolidation would be followed by a rights offering to shareholders. Funds raised from the rights offering will be used to advance the Farim phosphate project in Guinea Bissau.

Rockwell Ventures managed to hold on to yesterday’s 1 gain, ending the session flat at 16 on 140,000 shares The Hunter Dickinson-led junior is aiming to launch an aggressive drill program over the newly acquired Haut Plateau nickel sulphide property in east-central Quebec.

Making a nice percentage move, Starfield Resources added 5 to close at 50 on 181,000 shares. The junior is aiming to resume drilling on its Ferguson Lake nickel-platinum-palladium property in Nunavut early next year.

Sultan Minerals made early attempts to rally but ended the day unchanged at 23 on 100,500 shares. Additional drill results are expected shortly from the Gold Mountain zone on the Kena property in southeastern BC.