Trading Summary (May 14, 2001)

The Toronto Stock Exchange‘s 300 composite index shed 13.67 points to close at 8,010 in quiet trading on Monday. Investors huddled on the sidelines ahead of Tuesday’s U.S. Federal Reserve meeting. They fear that the Fed may not cut interest rates aggressively enough after stronger-than-expected consumer sentiment and retail sales data from the U.S.

The TSE’s base metal miners edged up just 15.88 points to 4,751.33. Sherritt International and Inco made appearances on the TSE’s top 10 most traded list. Sherritt fell 11 to $4.36 on 2.2 million shares and Inco slid 30 to $28.55 on 1.6 million shares.

Swedish-Canadian mining group Boliden stood out from the pack, gaining a dime, or more than 13%, to 85. The company has refused to comment on its twice-extended letter of intent to sell the Lomas Bayas copper mine in Chile to Falconbridge for $175 million, plus cash balances of $2.1 million minus third-party debt obligations of $112.7 million. The letter expires at 4 AM GMT on Tuesday. Some analysts believe Boliden is ready to pull out of the deal as it is in talks with creditors and potential new investors on the refinancing and restructuring of its existing lines of credit and a possible equity offering.

The gold & precious minerals subindex managed to gain 30.13 points to end at 4,904.01. Leading the group was Kinross with just more than 800,000 shares on the go. The issue was unchanged at 95. Barrick Gold gained a quarter to $26.85, Placer Dome climbed a nickel to $17.05 and Franco-Nevada Mining rose 19 to $18.89 to round out the major producers.

Franco-Nevada has upped its interest in Metallica Resources to 12.76% by acquiring 1.3 million shares. Franco now owns just under 3.5 million Metallica shares. For its part, Metallica gained 7, or 10.8%, to 72. Metallica and partner Noranda recently extended mineralization at the La Fortuna target on the El Morro copper-gold project in Chile by about 200 metres to the north and to the northwest.

Canada’s junior exchange started the trading week off in a dour mood with only Oil & Gas issues posting gains. The Canadian Ventures Exchange lost 9.85 points, or 0.3%, to finish the day at 3,166.87. The Mining Index followed suit, dropping 6.12 points, or 0.1%, to close at 6,612.40.

Shares in Goldcliff Resource topped the most actively traded chart among junior explorers, soaring 5 to 16 on a heavy volume of over 1.3 million. The company recently acquired 700 ha in the past-producing Hedley Basin area of southern British Columbia.

New Blue Ribbon Resources continued to attract investor interest ahead of drill results from the Moose diamond property in Manitoba. The Edmonton-based junior’s stock had doubled on news that joint-venture partner BHP hit significant sulphides on the first two holes drilled into the property. New Blue Ribbon ended the day up 1 to 30 on 464,200 shares.

Investors continued to reward Skeena Resources following news that the junior inked a deal to acquire Weirdale kimberlite cluster in the Fort a la Corne District of central Saskatchewan. Shares in the junior rocketed up another 5 to close at 15 on a volume of 120,500. Prior to the announcement, the shares were trading at less than 5.

Great Western Gold added 5 to close at 27 on 132,000 shares. The company recently announced a $750,000 financing aimed at advancing the Hoidas Lake rare earth project in Saskatchewan.