Alberta Stock Exchange (August 26, 1991)

North American Gold was the top trader on the Alberta Stock Exchange for the week ended Aug. 20 with 286,300 shares changing hands. It closed down 38 cents at $3.75, representing more than $1 million in trading value, a substantial amount by ASE standards.

But it wasn’t mining news that prompted the activity in North American. The company said its wholly owned subsidiary is buying 100% of a Houston company involved in “bioremedial environmental services” for cleaning up oil spills. North American is no stranger to innovative technology. Along with some mining properties, it also holds an option to earn a 50% interest in a Utah tar sands project that involves the use of a patented “cold” process to extract bitumen from the tar-sand matrix.

Tanqueray Resources traded 67,700 shares to close down four cents at 15 cents. It has just struck a deal with Westmin Resources (TSE) giving it the option to increase its current 46.7% interest in the Little Stull Lake gold project in northeastern Manitoba to 100%.

Tanqueray has to do $1.5 million of exploration work over the next five years and is issuing to Westmin shares worth $15,000. The large property already has been the subject of more than 200 drill holes averaging about 500 ft. in depth and has an established reserve figure of 825,000 tons grading 0.3 oz. gold per ton.

Stratabound Minerals wasn’t a heavy trader this week, but it moved up 12 cents to close at $1.12 on 4,400 shares as it prepared to ship the first ore from its CNE deposit near Bathurst, N.B., to the nearby Heath Steele mill. Shipment of the first 15,000 tons of lead-zinc ore was held up somewhat as Hurricane Bob passed by but should be completed by the end of August. Stratabound grossed more than $1 million on a 12,000-ton bulk sample processed in October and stands to gain similar proceeds over the mine’s 2-year projected life.