Western markets slump into spring

Vancouver — Canada’s junior exchange lost some ground over the report period ended Jan. 16. Poor U.S. job numbers helped boost gold over the US$400-per-oz. mark but failed to spur a stock rally. The S&P composite index finished the week at 1,826.27, down 98.63 points, or 5.4%.

Expatriate Resources closed at 46, down 14, with 7.2 million shares traded. Investors are waiting for results from a 2,500-metre drill program at the Islena project, near Taltal on the Chilean coast. The Islena project is in a historic copper-gold-silver mining district within the graben of the Atacama fault zone. The drilling will test for extensions of mineralization in the Union copper-silver mine.

Intrepid Minerals closed at $1.23, down 12, on a volume of 6.1 million shares. The company recently reported a grassroots gold discovery at the Oro Nuevo property in El Salvador. Mapping and trenching have outlined a bulk-tonnage gold target with 158 channel samples over a strike length of 225 metres. Of these samples, 37% returned assays greater than 1 gram gold per tonne, and 28% returned values greater than 2 grams gold. Individual channel samples assayed as high as 15.6 grams gold over 1.6 metres.

Spider Resources closed at 20, down 3, with 5.2 million shares crossing the floor. Spider and joint-venture partner KWG Resources recently tabled results for holes 26, 27 and 28 of the winter program on the McFaulds 3 discovery. Highlights from hole 27 include 0.44% copper and 4.04% zinc, plus 0.07 gram gold and 2.29 grams silver per tonne, over 15.8 metres starting at a down-hole depth of 70.32 metres. This included a 5.09-metre section that averaged 0.53% copper, 6.72% zinc, 0.06 gram gold and 1.47 grams silver. KWG Resources closed at 32, down 5, with 869,900 shares traded.

Cantex Mine Development closed at 11, up 3 with 4.9 million shares traded. The company plans to drill-test its nickel/copper/platinum-group-metals properties in Yemen and its gold properties in Nevada once it completes a previously announced $3-million financing. The junior holds an exclusive exploration licence covering 1,063 sq. km in northwestern Yemen, and in Nevada it has a 51% stake in 10 gold exploration targets. As well, Cantex owns a 10.2% interest in a 6,043-sq.-km licence in western Greenland.

Minera Andes closed at 48, down 16 with 4.37 million shares traded. The company has completed a brokered private placement of $6.5 million by issuing 10 million units priced at 65 apiece. A unit consists of one share and half a share purchase warrant. Each whole warrant entitles the holder to buy one additional share at 80 per share until Sept. 12, 2005. The money will be used to fund its share of development costs at the advanced-stage Huevos Verdes gold-silver project in southern Argentina.

Stroud Resources closed flat at 20 on a volume of 3.3 million shares. Stroud is proposing to raise up to $2 million in a non-brokered private placement. It plans to issue up to 11.7 million shares priced at 17 per unit, with each unit consisting of one share and half a share purchase warrant. A full purchase warrant entitles the holder to acquire one share at 25 for nine months from the closing date of the offering. Proceeds will be used to explore the Santo Domingo epithermal silver-gold project in Mexico.

JNR Resources finished the week at 50, down 14, with 3.3 million shares traded. JNR and partner International Uranium have cut additional high-grade uranium mineralization at the Moore Lake uranium project in the Athabasca Basin of northern Saskatchewan. Hole 29, based on probe results, returned a grade equivalent of 1.3% U3O8 over 7.5 metres and included a 2.3-metre section averaging 3.6% U3O8. International Uranium closed at $2.68, down 21, with 2.35 million shares changing hands.

Boulder Mining closed flat at 29 with 3 million shares traded. The company stands to earn a 70% interest in the Indian River Paleo Channel project in the Yukon. According to the Yukon government, 910,000 oz. gold were produced in the area between 1978 and 2002, and 225,000 of those ounces came from the Indian River property. Immediately following spring breakup, Boulder will start carrying out backhoe trenching, sampling, and rotosonic drill testing, plus a low-frequency ground-penetrating radar survey.