Trading Summary (August 22, 2002)

The golds and base metals stocks recovered from lower openings to put in decent gains on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Thursday. The gold index added 4.69 points or nearly 3% to make 165.89, while the metals & mining index tacked on 2.13 points or 1.7% to hit 125.02. Overall, the S&P/TSX Composite Index rose 62.88 points to end at 6,727.79 points.

The golds seemed to shrug off gold US$1 drop to US$ 306.70 per oz. in New York. Placer Dome ranked as Canada’s most traded miner advancing 70 to $13.60 on a trading volume of 4.8 million shares. Northern Orion Exploration was next in line dropping a penny or more than 14% to 6 with nearly 4 million shares changing hands. Barrick Gold grabbed 89 to make $23.79 and Kinross Gold ended 7 richer at $2.62 to round out the TSX’s top ten traded list.

In the lower ranks, NovaGold Resources put in a nice percentage gain, climbing 54 or 16% to $3.95. River Gold Mines slipped 20 or 6.7% to $2.80. On Thursday, the company reported second-quarter earnings of $105,957 (or nil per share), compared with year-ago earnings of $739,150 (2 per share).

Alcan was the moist traded of the base metal issues rising 90 to $45.50 on about 1.2 million shares. Most of the others put in similar gains. Among them were: Inco, plus 70 to $29.60; Falconbridge, up 43 to $17.72; Noranda, 45 higher at $18.15; Teck Cominco’s B series gained 42 to $11.79; and Aur Resources added 8 to reach $3.50.

Canada’s junior exchange continued to drift lower as oil & gas and technology stocks took centre stage. The TSX Venture Composite Exchange lost 1.42 points, or 0.1% to close at 997.68.

Making a nice percentage move, Anooraq Resources closed up 6 to 90 on 191,930 shares. Anooraq’s joint venture partner, African Minerals, is currently drilling the 2,900-ha Rietfontein Canada’s farm on the prolific northern limb of the Bushveld Complex in South Africa. African Minerals has reportedly hit an estimated 1 billion tonnes grading 4% nickel, 0.2% copper and 1.2 grams platinum group metals on its side of the property. The private company stands to earn a 50% interest in Anooraq’s property.

Starfield Resources continued to tread water dropping a penny to end the day at 39 on 145,000 shares. The junior is currently drilling the Ferguson Lake nickel-copper-platinum-palladium property in Nunavut.

TNR Resources added 3 to close at 20 on 126,000 shares. The junior has begun exploration work on Toronto-listed NovaGold Resources’ Rock Creek Gold project in Alaska. Under the agreement, TNR can earn a 49.9% interest in the project by spending US$10 million on exploration and development to bring the project to production by June of 2005.

Masuparia Gold gained 1 to close at 9 on 235,000 shares. The junior has been advancing the Greywacke gold property in the La Ronge greenstone belt of northern Saskatchewan.

Canada’s junior exchange earned back some of its recent losses. The TSX Venture Exchange composite index added 11.17 points, or 1.12%, to its value and closed at 1008.85 with 19 million shares traded.

Pan Asia Mining was the most active resource issue with 329,000 shares crossing the floor. Despite the volume the junior’s issue remained flat at 3. Pan Asia is exploring for diamonds on four parcels of land in the southern part of the Shandong province in China. The junior is planning a work program that will consist of further soil sampling, high-resolution magnetic and resistivity surveys, and, if warranted, pitting, trenching and drilling of the most favourable sites.

Newcastle Minerals lost a penny and closed at 20 with 256,000 shares. The junior stands to earn a 100% interest in 1,500 ha of Gossan gold-bearing mineral claims located in the Liard Mining District of northwestern British Columbia. The property is subject to a 2% net smelter returns royalty.

Commerce Resources lost 2 and closed at 8 on 251,500 shares. Last month the company kicked off its summer exploration program at the company’s Fir and Verity Tantalum-Niobium projects located near Blue River, British Columbia. Exploration will focus on an initial drill program at the Fir Carbonatite where prior work has outlined an inferred resource of 5.2 million tonnes grading 194 grams Ta2O5, 897 grams Nb2O5 per tonne, and 3.50% P2O5.

Gallery Resources remained flat at 14 with 225,500 shares traded. The company is actively exploring eastern Canada and holds the mineral rights to 4 principal exploration properties in Newfoundland and Labrador, namely the Okak Bay, Katie, LERQ and Cabot Lake properties. The company also has 22 mineral claims in the Cariboo Mining District in British Columbia.