Sinking TVX awaits Greek court decision

Gold prices twisted and turned over the holiday-shortened April 10-17 report period, closing up $1.65 for a London morning fix of US$260.10 per oz. on April 18.

The biggest mover among Canada’s gold majors was TVX Gold, which continued its spectacular freefall, nosediving another 27 to just 79 after trading above $2 earlier in the year. Rumours have been circulating in the Greek press about an adverse ruling from the Greek Conseil d’Etat with respect to the company’s Olympias gold project. TVX expects an official judgment by the end of the second quarter.

The rest of the pack just spun their wheels: Barrick Gold rose 9 to $24.17; Placer Dome edged up 15 to $14.70; Franco-Nevada Mining advanced 42 to $17.65; and Kinross Gold declined 2 to 72.

Contract miner Dynatec climbed 2 to 17 after landing a 3-year contract to operate Goldcorp‘s high-grade Red Lake gold mine in northern Ontario. Goldcorp rose 15 to $12.15.

Geomaque Explorations shot up 6 to 40 after releasing final results from a 16-hole program of infill drilling at the Marathon palladium project in northern Ontario.

Montreal-listed Freewest Resources jumped 11 to 33. The junior is drilling several promising gold targets at its Clarence Stream property in New Brunswick, where bonanza gold grades were encountered in earlier grab and channel samples.

In the diamond sector, a revitalized Namibian Minerals shot up 22 to 85 as it resumed mining off the coast of Namibia.

Canada’s star diamond performer, Aber Resources, advanced 75 to $15.75 as it and partner Rio Tinto successfully completed a winter program that saw the delivery, via ice road, of 4,100 truckloads to the Diavik project in the Northwest Territories.

Canada’s base metal producers mostly ended the week on an uptick: Noranda rose 2 to $16.02; Teck‘s B shares jumped 95 to hit a 52-week high of $16.70; Cominco had another great week, gaining $1.52 to hit a 52-week high of $16.70; Breakwater Resources was up 5 to $1.20; Boliden rallied 8 to 63; and Inco rose 41 to $25.90.

The exception was Falconbridge, which fell $1.07 to $16.83 after reporting first-quarter earnings of just $4.6 million, compared with $110 million last year. The company was hit with a triple-whammy: the now-ended strike in Sudbury; lower nickel and copper prices; and reduced production at its flagship Kidd operations near Timmins, Ont.

And in another development in Canada’s trust-unit takeover battles, Sherritt Coal (a partnership between Sherritt International and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan) announced an extension, until April 30, 2001, of its offer to buy all the outstanding units and debentures of the Luscar Coal Income Fund. Sherritt climbed 19 to $4.24, while Luscar units ended the week at $3.85.