Trading Summary (August 14, 2001)

The Toronto Stock Exchange drifted lower on Tuesday with only four of the 14 subindexes posting modest gains. The metals and minerals subgroup was one of those, edging up 0.89 point. The golds took the biggest hit of the day, falling 101.59 points, or more than 2%, to hit 4,781.94.

Volatile-of-late platinum and palladium both finished lower in New York. Platinum fell US$12 to US$436 per oz. and palladium shed US$22 to hit US$440 per oz. Silver tacked on US6 to reach US$4.20 per oz. and gold edged up US50 to US$276.40 per oz.

Barrick Gold, Placer Dome and Teck’s B class were the busiest mining stocks on the day all three saw more than two million shares on the move. Barrick fell 39 to $24.61, Placer slipped 51 to $16.74 and Teck edged up 20 to $11.30.

There were few winners among the country’s gold miners. Normandy Mining gained a dime to $9.35, Miramar Mining rose 3 to $1.15 and Hope Bay Gold, Miramar’s partner at the Hope Bay gold project in Nunavut, climbed 2 pennies to $32.

Glamis Gold shed 13 to $4.90 after posting second-quarter earnings of US$1 million (or 1 per share) late on Monday. By comparison, the company lost US$1.8 million during the corresponding period of 2000.

Silver and zinc miner Pan American Silver fell 15 to $5.25. The company posted a second-quarter loss of US$2.8 million, or 8 per share, compared with a year-ago loss of US$800,000, or 2 per share. For the first half of the year, the company’s loss totalled US$4.4 million, compared with a loss of US$1.5 million in 2000.

The base metal miners were a relatively quiet bunch. Alcan fell 27 to $54.25 with just more than 1.1 million shares traded. Modest gains were put in by: Inco, up 35 to $24.90; Sherritt International, 9 higher at $4.89; and Breakwater Resources, which rose 2 to 70.

Canada’s junior exchange struggled to find direction but a late-day buying binge finally propelled stocks higher. The Canadian Venture Exchange managed to tack on 7.56 points, or 0.2%, to finish the day at 3,080.62. The Mining Index surged 64.70 points, or 0.9%, to close at 7,464.62.

IMA Exploration tacked on 3 to 47 on 162,000 shares. The junior is gearing up to drill the promising Tablon zone on the Rio Tabaconas (formerly Tamborapa) gold project in northern Peru. The exploration program outlined the zone over a 600-by-200-metre area. Values range up to 36 grams gold per tonne over 6.4 metres.

Poplar Resources treaded water, ending the day down a penny at 23 on 179,500 shares. The junior’s 65%-owned subsidiary, North Star Diamonds, recently completed a geophysical survey over the Bottenbacken polymetallic project in central Sweden.

Failing to get a boost after announcing an update on its nickel-platinum-palladium projects in Ontario and Quebec, Aurora Platinum lost 10 to close at $2.25 on 26,500 shares.

Starfield Resources inched off recent lows, gaining a penny to 54 on 146,000 shares. The company is drilling the Ferguson Lake nickel-copper-platinum-palladium project in Nunavut.

Idaho Consolidated Metals appears to have found a bottom on news that a second round of drilling is set for the Stillwater platinum-palladium property in Montana. Shares in the junior closed flat at 50 after plunging to a new 52-week low of 44 earlier in the session, well off its 52-week high of $1.90.