MINING MARKETS & INVESTMENT NEWS – WESTERN MARKETS — Western markets ring in new year with rally (January 11, 1999)

The Vancouver Stock Exchange composite index rallied during the first week of the new year, tacking on 19.17 points, or 5.04%, to finish the week ended Jan. 5 at 398.95. The mining index followed suit, jumping 11.41 points, or 3.9%, to close at 279.06.

Meanwhile, the combined value of the Alberta Stock Exchange gained 82.82 points, or 4.87%, to close the week at 1783.64.

Polymet Mining rocketed 33 cents to close at $1.40. The company announced its initial results from the metallurgical pilot plant test program performed by Lakefield Research. Twenty-six tons of drill cuttings were processed over 42 hours, with head grades averaging 0.43% copper, 0.12% nickel, 0.009% cobalt, 0.06 gram gold, 1.48 gram silver, 0.08 gram platinum and 0.37 gram palladium. Mineral recoveries averaged 93.7% copper, 77.1% nickel, 46.4% cobalt, 76.6% gold, 69.9% silver, 76.4% platinum and 75.8% palladium. The results are superior to those achieved by Amax in the 1970s and Nerco in 1991. Tests of pressure oxidation and bioleaching will begin shortly.

Winspear Resources had a wild ride on the VSE, reaching a high of $4.45 on Dec. 31. The issue came to rest at $3.95, a net increase of 10 cents over the previous report period. Winspear holds a 67.8% interest in the Camsell Lake diamond project in the Northwest Territories, with the rest held by Toronto-listed Aber Resources.

Argentina Gold lost a dime and closed at $5.05. The company told its shareholders to reject Toronto-listed Barrick Gold’s takeover bid, calling the offer “inadequate, opportunistic and coercive.” The junior also released a preliminary resource estimate for the Amable target. The calculation pegs the resource at 31.8 million tonnes grading 2.02 grams gold and 43.1 grams silver per tonne, equivalent to a contained resource of 2.1 million oz. gold and 43.9 million oz. silver.

Anzex Resources rose 8 cents and closed at 34 cents after Donovan Hoult resigned from the board. The company says it will now devote its full attention to exploring its Longwoods platinum and palladium project in New Zealand.

Kalahari Resources found a dime and closed at 45 cents. The company has been defining targets on its Geomex claim blocks in Mexico. Analysis of drill data is pointing to two northwesterly trending targets.

JNR Resources announced an exploration program for its uranium properties in northern Saskatchewan. Geophysics and drilling, will begin on the Newnham Lake property, 75 km east of Stony Rapids. Joint-venture partner Kennecott Canada Exploration, a wholly owned subsidiary of Rio Tinto, will contribute $1 million to this year’s exploration budget. Kennecott can earn up to a 65% of any or all of the eight properties held by JNR. The latter closed up 4 cents at 14 cents.