MINING MARKETS & INVESTMENT NEWS — WESTERN MARKETS — VSE composite index gains momentum

William Hess, chairman of the Alberta Securities Commission, has been selected as the president and chief executive officer of the soon-to-be-launched Canadian Venture Exchange (CDNX). As part of a major restructuring of capital markets announced by Canada’s stock exchanges last March, the Vancouver and Alberta Stock Exchanges agreed to merge their operations to create the new western exchange CDNX.

The British Columbia Securities Commission has given its approval-in-principle to CDNX, as has the Alberta Securities Commission. Several conditions must be satisfied to complete the merger, including approval by the VSE and ASE members and adoption of legislation in Alberta. The VSE and ASE expect to meet those conditions by Nov. 26. Assuming all goes well, trading under the CDNX banner will begin Nov. 29.

For the period ended Nov. 16, the VSE composite index edged up 3.86 points, or 0.1%, to close at 392.99, whereas the mining index was off 5.83 points, or 2.2%, at 263.86. The combined value of the Alberta Stock Exchange rose 79.79 points, or 2.8%, to finish the week at 2,977.87.

Hunter-Dickinson-led Great Basin Gold tacked on 45 cents to close at $2.15. The company released further details of its deep drilling program at its wholly owned Ivanhoe property in Nevada.

Randy Turner’s Winspear Resources will spend $2.3 million to purchase Tahera’s 10-tonne-per-hour diamond recovery test plant for its underground bulk-sampling program on the NW Snap Lake kimberlite dyke. Winspear slipped a nickel to $2.20. Sister company Diamondex Resources remained unchanged at 65 cents.

Alberta-listed Tan Range Exploration closed at 46 cents, up 6 cents. Barrick Gold has agreed to subscribe to a 1.4-million-unit private placement in Tan Range at 70 cents per unit, for proceeds of $1 million. About 80% of the proceeds will be used to explore the Itetemia gold prospect in Tanzania. Barrick can elect to acquire up to a 70% interest in the project.

Quaterra Resources rose 4 cents to close at 15 cents on news that it’s gearing up for a 2,000-metre drill program on vein targets at the Nieves gold-silver project in Mexico’s Zacatecas state. Nieves is a joint venture with Newcoast Silver Mines, which was up a penny at 15 cents. Drilling is also planned for Quaterra’s Abitibi Extension project with Eastmain Resources in northern Ontario.

Redhawk Resources has struck a deal to buy the past-producing Reeves MacDonald property, which adjoins its Remac zinc project in southern British Columbia. Subject to due diligence, Billiton Metals Canada has agreed to finance the $1.4-million purchase and subscribe to a series of private placements, which will be used to fund initial exploration work on the zinc oxide potential. The two properties combine for a total inferred oxide resource of 4.5 million tonnes averaging 16.3% zinc. Redhawk doubled to 70 cents on limited trading.

Patricia Mining was up 15 cents at 53 cents. Proceeds from a fully subscribed $454,000 rights offering will be used to provide working capital and make the final payment on the company’s Island gold project near Wawa, Ont.