MINING MARKETS & INVESTMENT NEWS — WESTERN MARKETS — High-flyer St. Jude comes back to earth

The Vancouver Stock Exchange composite index lost 14.42 points, or 2.4%, to close the report period ended June 2 at 588.79. The mining index followed suit, slipping 15.7 points, or 3.4%, to finish at 441.76. Meanwhile, the combined value of the Alberta Stock Exchange dropped 31.51 points, or 1.4%, to close at 2,240.42.

Investors shaved 85 cents off of high-flying St. Jude Resources. The company had earlier reported bonanza-grade gold results from a fan of five closely-spaced drill holes on its optioned Hwini-Butre concession in Ghana, West Africa. St. Jude closed at $1.55 on heavy trading.

Energold Mining was up 18 cents at 73 cents. The company is awaiting assay results from bedrock test-pitting conducted within a multi-element geochemical soil anomaly measuring 500 metres by 600 metres on its 49%-held Longyear concession, which is adjacent to the Pueblo Viejo gold-silver mine in the Dominican Republic. Eldorado Gold has optioned the remaining 51% interest in the property.

The market has not been kind to South Voisey’s Bay-area players due to a dearth of positive news; Donner Minerals was down 29 cents to $1.45, Alberta-listed Northern Abitibi Mining was off 22 cents at 58 cents, Cypress Minerals closed at 32 cents, down 5 cents, Major Resources slipped 3 cents to 37 cents and Mandorin Goldfields closed at 12 cents, off 2 cents.

Mar-West Resources was down 5 cents to $1.45. At the close of the report period the company announced that it had made a new, near-surface gold discovery on the Palo Alto zone, 2 km west of the Sinter gold deposit at its 80%-owned San Martin concession in Honduras. Six holes tested 200 metres of strike length of a 1,600-metre-long geophysical anomaly returning mineralized oxide intervals in five of the holes that ranged from 21.3 metres of 0.6 gram gold per tonne to 25.9 metres of 1.85 grams. Curion Ventures, which holds a 20% interest in the project, slipped 2 cents to 28 cents.

Another Simon Ridgway company, Balaclava Mines, is preparing a comprehensive exploration program for the El Corazon property in northern Ecuador that will include trenching, pitting, drilling and tunnelling. Previous work on the property by London-based Rio Tinto returned high-grade gold values from two zones of sheeted vein mineralization. Balaclava, which holds an option to acquire initially a 70% interest, climbed 5 cents to close at 84 cents.

Argentina Gold closed up 18 cents to 60 cents after releasing drill results from the Veladero gold-silver project in the Argentine province of San Juan, including a 36-metre interval averaging 4.7 grams gold and 18 grams silver, starting at an 85-metre depth. Veladero is a 60-40 joint venture with Barrick Gold.

Alberta-listed Savanna Resources added 1 cents to finish at 11 cents. The company announced the startup of alluvial gold mining of the Lawa permit in Suriname.