Alberta Stock Exchange Kingswood big trader

As drill rigs are already up and running across the continent, after the Christmas break, it is hardly surprising that some of the junior mining issues were among the volume leaders.

For the week ended Jan. 9, 494,300 shares of Kingswood Exploration changed hands before the issue closed up 12 cents at 48 cents . The trading activity was sparked by a recent agreement giving Kingswood the right to earn a 50% stake in 18 Val d’Or, Que., claims held by Noranda Exploration.

The claims are situated next to the former East Sullivan copper- zinc mine in Bourlamaque Twp. When exploration gets under way, operator Noranda will be looking for a deposit similar to the massive sulphide discovery further east of the Aur Resources and Societe Miniere Louvem.

While it wasn’t among the volume leaders this week, Ontex Resources added 30 cents to its share price before closing at $1. The cashed strapped company has been arguing with Metalore Resources for the past four years about who owns the Brookbank gold property near Beardmore, Ont. (T.N.M., Dec. 25/89). Ontex has a 10% net profits royalty interest in the project where Placer Dome recently completed 35,000 ft. of diamond drilling.

Also gaining ground was Gold Vessel Resources. The issue gained 10 cents to close at $1.30 after Gold Vessel agreed to acquire a 50% stake in an Arizona heap leach gold mine.

The Montreal company says it will acquire a 1% undivided interest in the Harquahala mine for US$30,000 to a maximum of $1.5 million spent over the next 18 months to expand production on the heap leach pad and identify additional gold reserves.

Although it has remained quiet about the progress it has made at the Barnet Twp. gold property in Kirkland Lake, Ont., the Peter Island issue has been prominent lately. This week it was second only to Kingswood in the volume standings, with 427,900 shares changing hands. It also gained 10 cents before closing at $1.25.

Savanna Resources was one of the more active Alberta issues after Aur Resources announced that it was optioning Savanna’s Turner- Albright base metal project in southern Oregon. But after doing some metallurgical tests on material of the property, Aur has quietly elected not to exercise the option.

As a result, the price of Savanna shares has dropped from $1.10 in November to 32 cents this week.

With Aur out of the picture, Savanna President John Alston is looking for another company with deep pockets to finance further exploration at Turner-Albright.