Alberta Stock Exchange No stopping Argus

Two halt trading orders within 10 days have done nothing to stymie demand for the Argus Resources issue. While the share price dropped 51 cents to close at 88 cents , a gargantuan 1,773,800 shares changed hands during trading this week.

Fueled by speculation on progress at Argus’ Esker Lake gold project near Contwoyto Lake in the Northwest Territories, the Calgary company has been the No 1 trader for the past two weeks.

However, initially at least, drill results have failed to justify recent market activity. While the Esker Lake rock formation appears similar to that of Echo Bay’s Lupin mine, the first 350-ft drill hole produced results which the company describes as negligible.

Argus is planning to drill a second hole further west of the first hole, and more samples are on their way to the lab.

The Bayaura Mines issue remained stalled at 10 cents despite an agreement to acquire 800 acres of gold claims in west-central Ontario, near St. Joe Canada’s Golden Patricia mine.

Valued at $200,000, the Meen Lake prospect is subject to 3% net smelter returns and a number of scheduled option payments. Under an agreement with St. Joe, Bayaura will issue 340,000 shares at 50 cents each for $170,000 and pay $40,000 in cash.

As a result, 66,000 Bayaura shares changed hands this week.

The Bay Resources issue was equally unresponsive to news of exploration results at the Fontana joint venture gold property near Amos, Que., where Stratmin Inc. and Jilbey Industries are also involved.

According to Bay, a 100-ton bulk sample taken from the Hopper vein system assayed an average 0.17 oz gold per ton. About 60% was recovered as medium to coarse size free gold in the gravity circuit and 40% in the cyanidation circuit.

Since the Fontana property cannot be fully evaluated by drilling alone, underground exploration seems necessary, Bay says. The Bay issue remained at 50 cents on 1,000 shares.

Toronto-based Gateford Resources added 3 cents to its share price after some encouraging exploration results from a 7-hole program at its copper/gold property 10 miles northeast Madoc, Ont.

Gateford says the program is designed to test a major deformation zone where a quartz vein, dipping 70 degrees west in an old shaft collar, assayed 0.16 oz over an 8.6-ft width.

More recently, drilling has intersected a quartz vein over 13 ft which assayed an average 0.44 oz gold. The Gateford issue closed at 43 cents on a volume of 17,500 shares.